


The House of Foster

by ArticulatioHumeri



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Aliens, But all's well that ends well, Cooking, Dragons, F/M, Family, Fantasy, Fluff, Food, Gen, Hugs and Cuddles, Making A Home, Other, Romantic Comedy, magical houses, some drama, super cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-21
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-02-26 12:35:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 59
Words: 224,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2652272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArticulatioHumeri/pseuds/ArticulatioHumeri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She had set out to study wormholes.</p><p>Never would Jane Foster have thought that it would lay the foundations of a family clan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jane Maryanne Esther Astraea Foster had three scientific degrees, fifteen years of experience in academia and an unrivalled knowledge about the phenomenon of Einstein-Rosen-Bridges, better known as wormholes, yet this morning none of it helped her: there was an alien in her bed, and she had no clue what to do.

It was a very early morning. Actually, it was still night, the numbers on the clock so small she’d have groaned, turned around and forced her stubborn head back into sleep on any other day. Especially the latest days. Until the day before yesterday had happened, when sleep all of a sudden had become something for people who did not have to juggle memories of Darkelves, their red-glowing pet miasmas, or horrible spaceship parking.

Stop.

Jane closed her eyes, although a useless gesture in the dark, and concentrated on breathing. In – one two three four five six seven – out – one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven, repeat. When the images of numbers had replaced those of Malekith, Jane dared to blink. She turned around from where she sat on the side of the bed and looked to the other side. In London’s bright night Jane could make out the shape of the man lying there, finally breathing relatively evenly.

Thor had not woken up since they had put him there, barely able to walk after having wrestled Malekith for the first and hopefully last time. He had hardly winced at Darcy’s tries to clean his countless cuts and bruises.

He hadn’t even noticed when Jane had lain down next to him.

She looked at the glowing ciphers on the clock, which hadn’t changed significantly since the last five times she had done so. Sod it, as they said.

Jane checked Thor’s motionless figure in the city glow once more. He seemed calm enough. Making as little noise as any possible, she slipped out of the bedroom, biting her lip when one of her naked toes hit the doorframe. Three months in her mother’s house, and she still hadn’t settled. Somehow her trailer in the desert had been easier.

Even at this night time, the city couldn’t keep quiet. Jane hoped that the noises of distant cars, voices and God knew what would mask the creaking of the floorboards under her feet. She managed to climb down the stairs without cursing and allowed herself to breathe out deeply. At least, she did so until the front door opened. Too late to hide.

“Boss?”

Jane shushed audibly, pointing at the ceiling in approximate direction of the master bedroom. Darcy held up a hand to indicate she had understood, although in one of her miffed fashions. Taking Darcy’s huge linen bag – plastic bags were so last millennium – Jane went into the kitchen, followed by a Darcy bereft of hat, coat and shoes. Jane did not ask whether Darcy wanted a cup of tea, she simply put the kettle on. It wasn’t a coffee moment.

“You okay?” Darcy asked as she unpacked the contents of her bag – bread, ground coffee, some fruit and other base necessities. Although an ardent fan of junk food herself, Darcy saw it as part of her intern position to make sure her superiors got some nutritional value out of the food Darcy more or less successfully prepared.

“Okay enough, given the circumstances. You?”

“Hellish. Losing Erik was easy, give him his bottle and he sleeps like a baby, but Ian actually wanted a good-night-kiss.” Darcy gazed thoughtfully at a leak. “I need to get rid of him ASAP. You sure you’re okay?”

“I said –“

“I’ll phone Doctor Kapoor. When it’s late enough to not make her send the nice dudes in white jackets for me,” Darcy interrupted.

“I don’t need to see a shrink just because – because –“

“You got intimate with two different types of aliens? They infested you with something that needed a space exorcism? Almost got crushed with your crush? Yeah, I’ve been working on these all night. And _shrink_ is not a nice word, with everything the Doc has done for you.”

Jane bit her lip, feeling as if having been lectured by her mother. Oh dear. Her mother. She’d have to call her.

“You couldn’t phone my mother, could you?” she asked.

“I might be your intern, but for that you’d have to pay me. And I don’t think any research budget could cover that.”

“Which research budget?” Jane growled, warming the tea pot before brewing the beverage in question. She hoped that the tea box contained Earl Grey. Darcy’s care for groceries did not extend to differentiating between different sorts of tea. “It’s either green, black, or juice,” she used to say. Speaking of groceries…

“Where did you get all this stuff at this time of the night?”

Darcy shrugged.

“Supermarket. Before I dropped off the boys.”

“And that took so long?”

“Uh… yeah? I got lost. Wormholes and navigating are your field of expertise.”

Darcy gracefully accepted the cup of tea offered to her, added about half a cup of cream and a handful of sugar cubes before tutting at Jane for taking a sip of low-fat milk. In the intern’s opinion, genius diet did not apply to non-geniuses. Darcy’s definition, not Jane’s.

“Is the big boy any better?”

Jane wanted to shake her head, then stopped herself.

“Still sleeping. The nightmares seem to be better though.” Thor had been tossing around and moaning half the night. “We should get him to see a doctor.”

“He seemed okay enough yesterday –“

“He was in shock.”

“- and we don’t know what they’ll do once they have alien DNA on their hands. Real alien DNA this time,” Darcy said solemnly.

“But what if he’s really injured?”

Darcy pulled something out of her bag, a small notebook. “I’ll call Steve, maybe the Avengers have a sort of in-house doctor.”

“You mean, SHIELD does. If you want to make sure someone tries to collect some hair samples from Thor, sure, call them.”

“True, and not because they want him for hair care advertising,” Darcy sighed, flipping the book shut again. “Pity though. I like phoning Steve.”

“Rogers?”

“Yup.”

“I thought you only liked his butt.”

“One takes that which one canst beget.”

To her own surprise, a tired little smile crept onto the corners of Jane’s lips.

“You make Captain America sound like Richard the Office Hero.”

“Says the woman who yelled at a mediaeval god for misbehaving.”

“He’s not a god.”

“We’ve both seen him without his shirt on.”

Darcy slurped the last of her tea. She glanced at the window, which would not get any brighter for at least two more hours.

“You should go back to sleep, boss.”

“I… don’t want to. I don’t want to go back.”

Although she had more than one reason for this sentiment, it sufficed for Darcy to know that Jane had complained about the scary, draughty, bright, squeaky master bedroom of the house ever since they had moved in.

“Why are you sharing with him anyway?”

“It’s my bedroom.” Regarding Darcy’s expression at that statement, Jane added: “I thought he shouldn’t be alone. And while we’re at it, you’re out a lot of nights.”

Darcy shrugged.

“You only notice that now?”

“Yeah, but… I thought you went clubbing. You haven’t just been to a club, have you?”

“It sounds wrong when you say it. Also, I regard going to bed before sunrise as a waste of perfectly good night time.”

Darcy fished one of the extra large cupcakes out of the refrigerator and, to Jane’s never ending fascination, gulped it down whole.

“Maybe I should make breakfast…” Jane mused. Darcy, thoughtfully looking at the empty muffin paper in her hand, gave off a small sound of agreement – only to throw the wrapper into the rubbish bin, open the fridge once again, and return to the table with two more cupcakes. Instead of offering one to Jane, she made them vanish as quickly as the first specimen.

“Maybe you should let me catch an hour of sleep, and then I’ll make breakfast,” Darcy mumbled through an enormous mouthful of cake and frosting. She swallowed and added: “Just because your three hundred pounds of alien lover have fallen from the sky again, you don’t need to do that Martha Stewart impression. Once was enough.”

“I could cook eggs and toast.”

“Impressive, boss, but I don’t think you should attempt a Stepford Wifey for that guy. You charmed him once with your flannel shirts and stout lectures about how to handle dishware. Either he sticks to you now and forever, or no cooking skills in the world will help you. Actually, _your_ cooking skills definitely won’t help you,” Darcy said with a certain bite in her voice that made Jane give off a haughty huff.

Darcy looked at her phone.

“You have exactly two hours and seventeen minutes until sunrise,” she said. “Go get some sleep. I’ll prepare breakfast, and when you and Captain Biceps are up, you can do your kitchen magic, okay?”

Jane tried to suppress a yawn, but too late. She simply nodded at Darcy’s words and did not resist when the intern gently pushed her out of the kitchen door.

It took a moment until Jane’s eyes had gotten used to the darkness again, but then it was relatively easy to find her way back upstairs as noiselessly as possible – where she forgot all carefulness when she heard a muffled scream from her bedroom.

She ran into the room as if chasing the solution for the squaring of the circle problem. Thor was still asleep, but no longer quiet. He threw himself around on the bed, deeply entangled in sheets as well as the thralls of his nightmare. Jane could not quite understand his words, but she was quite sure to recognise a name or two. “Mother”, and something that could have been “Loki”. She swallowed hard. Jane had never seen anyone die before except for her father, but that had been in hospital under quite different circumstances. Even she was still haunted by the pictures of the queen on the floor, Loki turning grey and motionless in his brother’s arms. She could hardly imagine what it was like for Thor.

He moved so wildly that for a moment Jane did not know how to approach him without accidentally getting hit, but she hadn’t driven into storms only to shy away from a bear-sized coffee enthusiast with sleeping problems now. With a firm grip she shook Thor’s shoulders, speaking to him as loud as she could without screaming:

“Thor, it’s a dream. You’re on Earth, you’re dreaming. Wake up!”

The words seemed to do their magic. He shook his head, mumbling something, and finally, blinking wildly, came to rest in a half-sitting position on his elbows.

“Jane?”

“… hi,” she brought out, her throat all of a sudden blocked.

“I… I’m sorry…”

Lights. Jane didn’t like the brightness of the ceiling lamp, and she didn’t want to get up from the bed, so she switched on the small night light on the bedside table. Thor hardly seemed to notice, he sat bent over, rubbing his face with his hands.

At a loss at what to do, and once more in need for words, Jane simply stared when Thor finally looked up – and lowered his eyes almost immediately. How such a big man could look so forlorn was a mystery to her. She looked down, too, on the fingers of his left hand, now half closed around a crease in the sheets. Partly acting on impulse, partly held back by a shyness that made her shiver, Jane laid her hand on Thor’s, barely touching him. He immediately took hers, ever so carefully, running his thumb over the knuckles and the sensitive skin of the back of her fingers. Jane fought the impulse that screamed at her to get up and run. She did not want to get away from him, she wanted to close that distance that hadn’t been there… yesterday.

“I scared you,” he said, still looking at her hand. “I woke you up.”

Jane hurried to shake her head vehemently.

“No, no, I couldn’t sleep anyway…”

“You shouldn’t have –“

“I didn’t want to be alone,” she said, only now realising that it wasn’t a lie.

He raised his other hand towards her face, then hesitated. She moved a little closer to him, hoping it would be enough of an encouragement. It was, and finally she could feel his palm cupping her cheek once more. She leant against the strangely familiar warmth.

“I’m so sorry for bringing you into all of this,” he said quietly.

Jane clenched her jaw, and before he could shy back, embraced Thor in her best bear-cub-hug. She could feel his arms slowly closing around her, returning the embrace as if they had to remember how that worked.

“I brought myself into this. If I hadn’t stumbled nose-first into the Aether…”

“… then Malekith would have had it without our knowledge, and the universe would have fallen into eternal darkness the day before yesterday,” Thor finished her sentence.

“You saved me.”

“You saved all of us.”

“I’m so sorry… for everything that happened,” Jane heard herself rasp, biting back her tears as hard as she could. Thor had much more reason to cry than she did.

It felt good to hold him, to be held – and it ended much too quickly.

Thor didn’t exactly shove her away, but he made sure Jane sat up on her own before he swung his long legs out of the bed. There was no swagger in his gait, in fact, Jane had never seen anyone so steady on their feet immediately after waking up. At least that should mean that he wasn’t injured.

“I have to go.”

With the artful subtlety of an experienced mistress of persuasion, Jane blurted out:

“No!” She took a deep breath. “You can stay here, really, it’s no problem. It’s my mother’s house, it’s only temporary, I’ll find something else… that’s not what you mean, is it?”

He turned around, confusion on his face, but then knelt down in front of her, once more taking her hands.

“Forgive me, Jane. My behaviour toward you is atrocious, albeit owing you so much.”

“No, you don’t, really, it’s okay… can’t you just… stay? For a bit longer?”

He planted a bristly kiss on her fingers. Not one of his awkward baisemains this time, just a cute little smooch followed by some caressing with his free hand. His were so big, he could hold both her hands in one.

“That is my wish, if you’ll have me.” Jane nodded fervently at this, imagining she could have stopped Thor’s next words, and knowing that it would be in vain: “But I need to return home to settle things with my father. I must make sure our friends are safe, and that… he is a strong king, maybe the best who ever was, but he is… not like that anymore.”

Jane’s opinion about the old arsehole pretty much ranged in the spheres of the best the man had ever done was to father his son – but she kept that to himself. She wasn’t an expert at conversation, but she got what Thor was trying to tell her.

“If you want to go back to help with reconstructions, I can come with you,” she said. “You don’t have to stay here because of me.”

Thor shook his head.

“It is not a friendly world for you… nor for me. My wish to leave was not caused by you, although meeting you strengthened it by a thousand times.”

She could not suppress a bitter chuckle. At least she could be sure that empty flattery wasn’t Thor’s strong side.

“Look, it’s okay if you don’t want to… you don’t have to come back for me if you don’t…”

_… like me._

Maybe he got the hint, maybe not.

“I promise I will return to you. When I have settled matters with my father, I will return to you.”

“Unless he decides to have you think over your decision in, say, a cosy little dungeon?”

Thor smirked.

“I happen to know the palace guards better than he does.”

“Cheater,” she smirked back.

Silence fell between them, and with it their smiles. Thor looked down on their intertwined fingers, then back up into Jane’s eyes.

“Can I kiss you once more?” he asked.

“Don’t you _ever_ ask me for kissing permission again.”

For once she congratulated herself for having said a thing out loud.

It seemed only seconds later that Thor stood in the hallway, hammer in hand, clad in his old suit of armour. The metal bits had simply disappeared last night, when he had fallen into bed. Now he pointed at the clothes peg where the hammer had waited for him.

“Appears that it has a spot of its own now.”

Jane managed to smile a little, both at the joke and his try to imitate her way of speaking. He had simply dropped the tool in the middle of the hallway last night. Not the best place for such an artefact, Jane had thought, and more or less automatically put it back where she had seen it during their short break before. Thinking about it now, the heavy thing definitely wasn’t something she wanted in her bedroom. It was probably still covered in bits of Darkelf, too.

Thor had just opened the front door when Darcy’s voice resounded through the hallway:

“What’s going on here? Going away without saying bye?”

There she stood, in full intern glory, wearing a most gigantic, plush, rainbow-unicorn-encrusted, glittering bathrobe, with matching rainbow unicorn slippers at her feet.

“Forgive me, Lady Darcy,” Thor said with a warm smile, planting a mocking little kiss on the back of Darcy’s hand, “we had thought you asleep.”

“Yeah, I’ll go with that,” she replied. “You’re forgiven if you come back quickly this time.”

“I shall.”

He stepped outside into the street and, with a last look at Jane, vanished in the by-now familiar maelstrom of colour and light. She was relieved that he hadn’t kissed her once more. She wouldn’t have let him go.

“Darcy?” Jane said with a side glance at her intern.

“What?”

“That’s _my_ bathrobe.”


	2. Chapter 2

The last time Jane had seen her rainbow unicorn bathrobe had been about a month earlier, marked by the occasion of a call from her mother.

“Jane, Darling? Is that you?”

The clock on her phone showed three in the afternoon. Jane tried to sit up in bed as quietly as possible, so the rustling of her blankets couldn’t be heard.

“No, Mother, you’ve accidentally phoned Santa Clause again. See you next Christmas.”

“Yes, Darling, very funny. Are you dressed? Have you showered? It is _very_ bad manners to talk to people when not presentable, you know that.”

“ _Yes_ , Mother.”

Jane was quite aware that the honorific “Mother” was not something used by most people her age, but the only alternative that expressed her relationship to this woman more or less precisely would have been “Lady Beatrice” – which she had tried once, with a result Jane was less than simply unwilling to repeat. The tirade that followed her last words was nothing in comparison:

“I should never have allowed your father to raise you, you have _perfectly_ adapted his insufferable tone. At that rate, we’ll never have you married if…”

Had Jane been able to choose who took care of her at her parents’ divorce, twenty-five years before, she’d have chosen to live with her father, but only after careful negotiations that were about as easy as asking someone to choose between Vegemite and Marmite. Eaten with a spoon. To Jane, her parents had always been just the same: if they didn’t grow on you immediately, it’d never happen.

She was about to hang up when a part of her mother’s endless spill of words caught her attention – and not in a comfortable way:

“… her son if he’s in London this weekend, and he’d love to meet you. He is a bachelor – a single. Is that how you say? An unmarried young man? A single?”

“Yes, Mom, for the past seven hundred years we luckless spinsters of all genders have been called singles.”

Sometimes she wondered whether her father had summoned her mother by reciting from a Jane Austen novel at midnight in an old library, standing in the chalk outlines of a huge symbol of spectacles on the floor between a handful of flickering reading lights. What else would a literature prof in want of a scary wife do?

“Either way, I do hope you’re available next Saturday.”

Stepping over a floor littered with unwashed clothing and what smelled like – ooh – empty takeaway boxes of unknown age, Jane tiptoed to the door of her room, carefully avoiding the mirror. Maybe she should really at least brush her teeth. Where was that bathrobe…

“Uh, sorry, Mom, I have that lab thing scheduled for Saturday and I really can’t –“

“Don’t lie to your mother, young lady. I have called your institute, and they know nothing about any appointments of yours whatsoever. They don’t even know where you are! You don’t have any classes, and your research budget has not been approved.”

Through gritted teeth, Jane hissed:

“Yes, Mom, thank you very much for the reminder.”

She punched the red button on her phone rather than pressing it. Looked at the screen, tried to calm her breath, then thought better of it. Dialled back.

“Yes, dear?” her mother answered with the warmth of an iceberg.

“Have you given that guy my number?”

“Of course I did.”

Great. She’d have to switch off her phone for the rest of the week. Or better, throw it into a fountain somewhere. There hadn’t been a single useful message on it for weeks.

“… as well as your e-mail, and your current address. We all know these modern things tend to fail more often than they function.”

“Thank you, Mom. I’m sure that if he decides to send a message in a bottle, I’ll get it.”

“You’re very welcome.”

This time she shut down the connection for good.

Jane was about to switch off her phone – a most relaxing action, she had always found – when a thought occurred to her. Better block the line before her mother called back.

“Darcy?”

The intern had picked up after the second ring.

“What?”

“Where are you?”

“In bed, in the room opposite yours. Why are you calling? Has your door turned into a space portal with tentacles again?”

With a frustrated growl Jane finally and rather fervently switched off her phone. “I didn’t want to shout,” she told the device’s black screen.

“Or, you know, you could build a wormhole to cross this mess,” Darcy’s voice said. The intern had indeed managed to open the door to Jane’s bedroom. “Phew. And another one to air this place.”

“Sure, if you get the funding settled,” Jane snapped back, her face hot with embarrassment.

“One photo, and there’s your crowdfunding.”

The door slammed shut again. Jane closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead where it got stung by a nasty pang of migraine. Bath. She needed a bath.

“I’m using up the hot water, if you don’t mind!” Darcy’s voice rang through the bedroom door.

All of a sudden, Jane felt very cold.

* * *

About an hour later, Darcy was loading their breakfast utensils into the dishwasher while Jane was sitting at the table, checking her e-mails. It was a fruitless action – spam, newsletters, “Your neighbour might be an alien” (clearly wishful thinking) – but it gave her a sense of normality. Jane didn’t know what else she was supposed to do at the breakfast table. Papers had long lost her interest. Well, if more than one year, the time that had passed since the Avengers’ formation, counted as long.

“Anything from Erik?” Darcy asked.

“Nope.”

Jane kept staring at her screen, noticing from the corner of her eye that Darcy had picked up her bag.

“I’ll be back for dinner, try not to mope that much until then,” the intern said. “Read a book or whatever.”

Jane retorted:

“I finished the telephone book last week.”

“That’s your very own fault for reading so quickly. Don’t spoil the end to me.”

Jane nodded at Darcy’s outfit: no shapeless cardigan or knitted hat, but a printed blouse and blazer. She looked almost chic, if not for the decided lack of make-up. Darcy considered that beneath her.

“Where are you going?”

“Looking at an apartment. It’s probably a rat hole that’s not worth a tenth of what they want for rent, so wish me luck!”

Suddenly even less interested in her laptop, Jane asked:

“How can you afford that?”

“What? Not living in a trailer or in the cupboard under someone’s stairs for a change? You shouldn’t ask how I pay for it, but if I _deserve it_ , and the answer is a clear _yes_.”

Jane hung her head, wishing she had her bowl of cereals back to stare into.

“That’s true.”

Darcy was already in the hallway.

“See you.”

“You too.”

She only realised that she was crying when the first hot tear splashed onto the laptop case. Jane wiped it off, and all the others that had started to stream down her face, biting her cheeks. Not fair. It was fucking not fair. She clung onto the thought, preferring it over the emptiness of the past weeks. Months. Add a year or ten.

Darcy wasn’t much of a housekeeper, but she was reliable in her ways of putting things where they belonged. Equipped with a pair of rubber gloves and a large plastic bag, Jane went back up to her bedroom. It took her half an hour and quite a few breaks at the opened window to clean away the worst of the junk, place all the laundry in the washing machine and have a bucket of soap water ready to get a-scrubbing. Another fifteen minutes she spent on researching online whether her shirts would survive being washed with her jeans, and if the floor boards actually liked soap water. Feeling expertly experienced in cleaning by late afternoon, Jane did not notice when someone came quietly into her room.

“Goodness, boss, you’ve been robbed! People will steal everything these days…”

Jane gasped in shock at the sound of Darcy’s voice. She had just been taking care of a particularly nasty stain, one of those that looked like they had been part of the house for centuries in order to raise its value on the real estate market.

“Goodness, Darcy!”

“Too much goodness in the room – and very little stuff. What did you _do_?”

Jane shrugged.

“I didn’t know what to do.”

“Yeah, I see that. If you don’t know anything else, you can make dinner. I’m starving,” Darcy sighed, stretching her back. She was still wearing her coat.

“Hey, take your shoes off!” Jane said. “I was just about to start on that corridor floor!”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Darcy retorted with a haughty sniff.

“Slippers are by the front door.”

“Snob.”

It came to Darcy to make dinner. They ate quietly, Jane still lost in her cleanup plans, Darcy apparently not in a mood for talking. Only when she was about to return to her sponges and dust cloths did Jane remember her intern’s afternoon activity.

“So, uhm… how was the flat?”

“Huge, airy, freshly renovated and way too cheap. Who do these people think they are?” Darcy huffed. “Thanks for asking now.”

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

Jane put her gloves back on the table.

“No, really. Sorry for all of this. I can understand that you want to leave. Actually, you really should. Go back and get your degree. Get a real job, for Heaven’s sake.”

“Ew, Jane! Not those horror stories right after dinner! You know my sensitive stomach,” Darcy replied before whooshing out of the room. Jane snorted at the “sensitive stomach” remark. Her intern had proven to be able to digest practically anything, from actual sand cake to cheese so ripe it had almost completed its rebirth cycle. Envy wasn’t strong enough a word to describe how most people reacted to Darcy’s eating skills. They were a rare gift.

Jane cleaned the whole upper floor that night. She had no idea where Darcy was, for the scrubbing extravaganza only ended when Jane was close to curling up with her bucket on the floor to fall asleep there and then.

She did make it into her bedroom, the air in it fresh and cold now, and in its emptiness not any more cosy than it had been in the morning. The bed, its mattress too hard, the pillows too soft, the blankets too strange – as if they had never wrapped themselves around a person. Maybe they hadn’t. Jane had long suspected that her mother slept with her feet clawed into a ceiling beam.

Tomorrow she’d check those for scratch marks.

* * *

Darcy thwacked the tea mug onto the table, making Jane jump.

“We need to find you a hobby.”

Jane groaned. She was still sore from her scrubbing workout last night, her body not used to moving so much.

“I’d prefer a research project.”

“Perfect. Why don’t you do some research about knitting?” Darcy smirked.

Her cereal by now an unappetising mash, Jane pushed away her bowl. Although Jane never had tried to eat anything different for breakfast during the last, oh, maybe twenty years, there weren’t many things she could imagine that were less disgusting than soggy cornflakes.

“Are you going to bed?” she asked Darcy.

“Yup, planning to sleep like a honey bee in a honeycomb. Unless you’ve wiped all the honey out of my room. Then I may turn stingy.” Darcy waved a small blue note in front of Jane’s face. “Here, knitting shop. No maps, you have to find it on your own. Ask people. They’re the guys on two legs wandering about. Make me proud, boss.”

Darcy gave Jane’s shoulder a hearty clap before leaving the kitchen for her bedroom. Jane looked down at the shop address, then back to the door, where Darcy had vanished. _You just wait_ , she thought.

When Darcy woke up that afternoon, she walked straight into a wall of wool.

* * *

They did not clean up the house that night. Darcy was still too bewildered by the knitting machines Jane had constructed out of some junk from her makeshift lab in the basement, and Jane was far too fond of her prank.

There had been knitting machines in Darcy’s favourite shop, but none groovy enough for Jane’s taste. The simple mechanics had been easy enough to learn, and the rest was a matter of pound shop combs and pounds of wool. At least Jane would have a nice assortment of warm blankets tonight, most of them in colours matching her bathrobe. Wherever that thing had vanished to.

“I knew it,” Darcy grumbled into her salad – cheese and bacon, for health reasons. “Once the superheroes stop keeping an eye on you, you turn into a superwoolly.”

Jane smirked, quite content with herself for the first time in years.

“If you didn’t know that knitting was evil, maybe you should ask the Avengers for a seminar.”

“They should really do such things. Steve Rogers would make an awesome professor,” Darcy grinned. “Especially when he turns around to write something at the blackboard.”

Jane laughed. That felt good, the laughing. Maybe Darcy’s idea of getting Jane into something new hadn’t been quite as bad after all – being Darcy-ish none the less.

The following days and weeks were marked by comments of similar kind:

“Sewing, are we?”

“Paper art, nice.”

“Is that scrapbooking? With photos of your favourite stars and galaxies? Original, and they don’t give you socks for Christmas.”

Yet whatever Jane picked up, nothing could really hold her interest, and she started to worry about how Darcy, who had assigned to herself the part of shopping manager, could afford to buy the not particularly cheap supplies for their silly enterprise.

“Crowdfunding,” Darcy said with a nonchalant shrug when Jane asked her over dinner. They had just discussed next day’s adventures, keeping it open between glass painting and bottle ships. “I’ve put up a blog, and people seem to like seeing you make stuff. And before you ask, I’m totally not taking bets on when you’ll finally fail at a craft.”

Jane coughed, almost spitting tea over her freshly decorated porcelain plate.

“Don’t worry, there’s only some photos of your results under an alias. People just loved the story of how you superglued a pink glitter heart to your cheek by falling asleep on your desk,” Darcy grinned. Jane tried her best to resist the urge of diving under the table.

“Darcy…” she said after having caught herself again, “I know you only mean well, but how long do you think this is going to last? We can’t keep making glitter hearts forever.”

“Maybe I can’t, but you… imagine them to be really fancy cousins of the black hole.”

Jane shook her head.

“You know what I mean. This isn’t getting us anywhere back on track, this is running away. I can’t do that, not if I want to keep up with my research.” She smoothed back her hair, which had escaped from the ponytail she had adapted after some more glue incidents. “It’s not as if my reputation has been taken any more seriously after becoming a bit too friendly with an extraterrestrial, and it’s not going to get back there if anyone from Supernovae Weekly finds out that I’ve been stitching little ducks onto tea towels on Monday.”

Even Darcy looked surprised at this little speech.

“Astrophysicists have yellow press?”

“You know what I mean.”

The intern set down her pudding bowl, empty to the last spoonful, as usual.

“Jane, I know exactly what you mean. Really. But you need to relax. Staying wound up like a clock isn’t going to get you anywhere. I had to finish those duckies for you because you were too fidgety to get the threads through the needle for the last one.”

Jane nodded. “I guess you’re right.”

“’Course I am. Bruce said so, too.”

“ _Bruce?_ ”

Darcy got up and went to the stove, where the pudding pot was still sitting. She took it back to the table, scratching out the last spoonfuls of the sweet goo.

“Bruce, yes. Banner. I’ve been trying to reach the Avengers for ages, and it seems the best way is to phone Pepper Potts’s dog stylist.”

“Pepper Potts…”

Darcy rolled her eyes as if she were merely talking about a celebrity acquiring a new yacht.

“She has this dog because it calms her down, or it calms Tony down, I don’t even know. Very nice lady, we’ve been talking about the new Prada collection for _ages_.”

Jane sighed, trying to make it sound frustrated, and failing miserably.

“So… they have no sign of him?”

“Sorry, boss.”

Darcy left her pudding pot and sat down next to Jane, putting an arm around her in a gentle hug.

“Is there nothing you do when you’re stressed out? Yoga? Aroma therapy? Watching really sappy lovestory movies?”

It felt odd to be held like that. Good, somehow, but very odd, too.

“Stargazing, but try that in such a bright city.” Jane looked down at her fingers. Her nails were stained with paints and glue, glitter and the odd fragment of yarn. There had been something she had done to calm down, back in college. She just wasn’t sure she still had it in her.

When she went to bed that night, Jane did something she hadn’t done in a long time either: she activated her alarm clock. Just this once, if she could still operate a cupcake tray, breakfast would be on her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the sort-of filler chapter, it just kept getting longer and longer, so I had to split it into chapters 2 and 3. As usual, I'm working on several chapters in advance, so that when I post one, the story is already advanced enough to save it from at least some continuity errors - just so you know, there's definitely gonna be more updates. I'm currently in chapter 5, the character setup is getting complicated, and why again did I start another big writing thing...?
> 
> It's long been my personal theory (if you know my tumblr) that Jane tries a lot of funny crafting and kitchen-ing to get herself through her downtime, and as that fit the outline for this story so well, I couldn't help but make it part of the themes I based this on. As some of this story is directly inspired from plot elements I couldn't use for my previous one, "Children of a Fleeting World", some of them, including Jane's hobby of baking, will definitely return, although in quite different a context. I also hope you don't mind too much that I had just too much fun giving her a romantic-comedy family background. All the Jane Austen references!
> 
> I hope to get the next chapter posted before Christmas, and that you liked this one a bit. As usual, I'd love to hear your thoughts! <3


	3. Chapter 3

Mr Jiddles was a grey-bearded man with a grey coat that had certainly not been as fuzzy once. His manners, however, had not lost any of their smartness.

“A most formidable flavour, Miss, and such beautiful star decorations. Almost too good for eating.”

“Glad you like them,” Jane said, slightly blushing.

“No doubt the best cakes I have had in years,” Jiddles insisted. “What would make you wonder?”

Jane shrugged, offering the man another one of her cupcakes.

“So far only my intern has tried them, and she’d eat anything. Come to speak of her, you should eat this before she can.”

Laughing like Santa on a charity event, Mr Jiddles accepted the treat.

During her long years in a college dormitory, Jane had had to deal with many things – advanced assignments, uncalled-for parties (which included pretty much all parties for Jane, especially if held by her roomie the night before exams), very much uncalled-for student loan bills – and she had dealt with most of them through baking. Cakes, tarts, savoury baking, bite-sized baking… yet cupcakes had never failed her. Easy, just creative enough, and so popular with pretty much anybody that there was little chance of accidentally forgetting the tray in the back of the fridge and stumbling over a new species of vermin two weeks later.

So this morning, when more sensible people were still sound asleep, Jane had gone to the next supermarket to purchase a muffin tin, paper wrappers and ingredients. Her mother’s town house kitchen had turned out exceptionally well-stocked where it came to baking tools, especially for someone who had never prepared their own food in their life. No wonder that Jane and her mother had little to bond over. Had there been a degree in upgrading cup noodles to something edible, Jane would have taught it.

Long story short: after one bite and half a face full of frosting, Darcy had meowed at Jane until the latter had made another seven trays of cupcakes, with varying flavours of Darcy’s choice. Which had been… fun.

As if that was not miracle enough, Jane had also witnessed for the first time that Darcy wasn’t able to finish a sweet treat. As a scientist, Jane felt fascination, as a baker, pride. Still, there had been seven… well, almost seven trays of extra large cupcakes left, and while the town house naturally lay in one of the most expensive areas possible, that did not mean that just one or two blocks away, there didn’t live people who could do with free food. Jane had been too shy to talk to any of the men and women ducking into the dark corners of side streets, some with bundles of their belongings, some without, but Darcy had no such fears – she had distributed her two large boxes full of cake within minutes.

“We can come back tomorrow, if you want,” Jane mumbled. “If you like anything in particular…”

Mr Jiddles raised his hands in a gesture of humbleness.

“Oh no, I could not ask…”

“Strawberry shortcake, but you won’t get those at this time of the year,” an elderly woman in a threadbare woollen hat said. She sat down next to Jane. “Miriam Powel, nice to meet you, and something hearty is actually quite nice this season. Potatoes, minced meat, a good crust… oh, they used to make the best crusts over in… where was that… Jiddles?”

He shrugged. “I’m sorry, my dear, I’m afraid I cannot help you there.”

“Oh…” Ms Powel sighed, a sadness flowing over her face that could not hide the deeply distraught sensation underneath.

“Shepherd’s Pie tomorrow, got that,” Jane winked. Immediately the woman’s face lit up.

“What’s Shepherd’s Pie?”

Darcy was back. Jane grinned up at her.

“You’re in for a treat.”

* * *

Baking was not the solution to her most pressing quirks of life, but it did give Jane something to do for a while. Although she tried to apply Darcy’s strict order not to look at anything science-y, it just so happened that a lot of what Jane made was decorated with little diagrams of the solar system, famous constellations of stars she missed so much, and almost natural renditions of gravitational anomalies. It couldn’t be denied, she would not be without her work. On the other hand, being able to do something for others, even on a small scale, did help.

As the weather was getting colder, Jane’s knitting machine produced one thick blanket after the other for the inhabitants of F. Street, and Darcy managed to make several hats according to their new owners’ wishes. Although the donations from Darcy’s blog made it possible to bring out several boxes of foodstuffs and other necessities every day, Jane kept feeling uncomfortable. It wasn’t what these people really needed.

What arrived in shape of a phone call one day was certainly not what Jane needed either.

“Jane, Darling? Your mother here.”

She’d never have guessed.

“I told you about Eleanor’s son, Richard, didn’t I? Imagine that, he is back from the States this weekend! Why don’t you two meet for a spot of lunch on Friday, quite informally…?”

Jane’s voice would have frozen the Vesuvius when she replied:

“Have you… _arranged_ anything?”

“Oh, nothing substantial, Eleanor just thought it would be advisable to have a table booked, just to make sure.”

As was her habit, Jane hung up. As was her mother’s habit, she called right back.

“Awful connection over here, I am so sorry.”

“So am I,” Jane grunted.

“Well, where did we stop…” Technically Jane had stopped the drama, but her mother had never been one to pay much attention to the people who were not her. “Oh yes, Friday! Now, Darling, I happen to be in town this week, we will have tea, and then we will make you presentable.”

There was exactly one thing not entirely conservative about Jane’s mother, and that was her idea of when to have tea – which was always. Everything else complied to the standard package though, and it scared the algebra out of Jane. There was no avoiding the determination of Lady Beatrice.

Come next Friday, Jane would look thirty years older. She’d look like a woman who had never hunted a dust bunny in her whole life. She’d look like her mother.

* * *

Typical. Whenever you were desperate for an alien to drop from the skies, with all shenanigans attached, there was none. Jane would have hugged that guy called Loki, had she been given the chance. First impressions and so on.

As if her mother’s prattles weren’t bad enough, she really knew how to spoil a perfectly good cup of tea with having samples of what Beatrice considered adequate fashion choices presented during the leafy ritual. Jane felt sick at all the lavenders and beiges, the twinsets and pencil skirts. Clothes had a clearly defined purpose: they kept you warm and protected, which was what Jane’s stuff did. Still, she had an assortment of stuff pretty enough to pass at more formal occasions than expeditions into no-man’s-land, and nothing spoke against wearing that for her appointment… arranged embarrassment… lunch date… thing.

In short: the last thing Jane Foster needed was the nightmare of a mint-green wannabe-Chanel-but-did-not-quite-dare suit that turned out the result of seeing her mother for the first time in more than ten years. Jane was relieved her mother had never attempted to hug her during those two hours, for who knew what else would have happened?

What did indeed happen was the intervention from Heaven Jane had prayed for all morning, and it came from the least likely direction: her date.

“Do you mind if I get this?” Jane said with a badly faked expression of apology on her face, pointing at her phone, while her mother admired the atrocity of her outfit of choice once again. There weren’t many people who could call her here and now, and all of them – Darcy, Erik, the faculty – meant much better news than what she was in now.

“Oh, uh, hi… this is Richard,” a not too unpleasant voice said at the other end.

“Uhm, hi Richard,” Jane replied, noticing her mother’s head shooting up into the position of a meerkat on watch.

“Jane, is that you? Do you mind if I call you Jane?”

“Yeah, I mean, no, I mean…” She took a deep breath, trying very hard to imagine her mother transforming into a meerkat. It helped a lot, with Lady Beatrice’s resemblance of Professor McGonagall and all. “I mean, sure, I don’t mind at all.”

Phew.

“See, Jane, the reason I call is… well, this is a bit…”

Now the meerkat had started gesturing at her. Unable to focus on Richard’s words with a wildly flailing Beatrice in front of her, Jane turned on her heel and walked out of the room.

“Sorry, Richard, I didn’t get that. Terrible connection here…”

“Yes, isn’t it? Was it always that terrible?” He laughed nervously. Actually not too bad. Jane wondered what the letdown was that had led his mother to couple him up with a woman he didn’t even know. Maybe he turned into a purple toad every new moon. How practical, all he’d need during that time was a well-stocked terrarium and enough toad biscuits.

“It’s the new phones, they… ah, sorry,” Jane caught herself before she could break into fifteen minutes of techno babble. Not a good way to introduce herself, a lecture on experimental physics. Not with the Richard type.

“Uh, Jane, this is terribly late of course, but my flight…”

“I see, no, no problem at all.”

Was fate for once smiling at her?

“I meant to say… do you have some time tomorrow?”

Just smirking, apparently.

After an exchange of meaningless platitudes of courtesy, the call ended. Jane stared at the screen of her phone for a little while longer, then returned to the room where her mother waited with a curiously serious expression on her face.

“He has cancelled,” Beatrice said with a poise that had earned her the part of Queen Boudicca in three school plays in a row, back in her days.

“Just postponed.”

“I should have known that he had his father’s southern backbone. As southern as Chiswick, of all places.”

Everything below Hadrian’s Wall was “southern” for the Lady.

Jane shrugged her shoulders.

“It’s only tomorrow after all. I’m sure the reservation at the restaurant can be changed, or we just go somewhere else…”

What her mother did next gave Jane the shock of the morning: Beatrice leant forward, placed her own perfectly tempered hand on Jane’s cool one, and looked at her with a stern face.

“It is quite alright, Jane. There is no need to play the brave for your mother.”

“I’m not…”

“However, I’m afraid this cannot be cancelled.” As usual, just when Jane started believing again that Beatrice actually cared about her… “We all have our obligations, and where would we be if we began to be careless about them just because of our own little troubles?” Little indeed.

Beatrice had her phone out with the practised ease of a Lady marshalling her court.

“I will call Doctor Kapoor. You remember Doctor Kapoor, dear?” Jane nodded, although all she had were a handful of vague childhood memories. Too baffled to find words, she watched her mother talk to an invisible receptionist: “Yes, this afternoon. I am quite aware that this is unforeseen, young lady, and I cordially invite you to check the name in your files. Check the method of payment, too, if you must. I am not intending to be any more direct.”

Lady Beatrice waited for her arrogance to do its work whilst Jane wished she could have sunk into the floor. Finally, most likely after talking to the doctor herself, the receptionist returned to the phone with what sounded like a confirmation for the appointment.

“Wonderful,” Beatrice snapped into the microphone, “it will not take long, all she needs is a prescription. Yes, that will do. And to you.”

Jane had risen to her feet, staring down at her mother as icily as she was capable. What she was incapable of was to express her anger in words. Beatrice made sure not to notice when she said:

“You have an appointment at three o’clock. I’d suggest we should try to have you as presentable as possible for that, just to make sure the good doctor does not prescribe any more than necessary, should we not?”

At the affected laughter of her mother, Jane turned on her heel and left.

* * *

The first thing Jane did in Doctor Kapoor’s practice was to apologise for her mother’s behaviour, and it was the first thing she told the Doctor, too. The doc took it easy:

“Oh, don’t you worry. It was not your mother’s reasoning that got you this appointment, and besides, I did indeed have a vacant slot on my schedule.”

“Whatever my mother has promised – double the amount on the bill,” Jane said. Doctor Kapoor laughed.

The doctor had hardly changed during the fifteen years since Jane’s last sitting, except for a line here or there on her face. It made remembering their sessions much easier, and how much Jane had liked her doc. She knew the rules – no personal bonds with your therapist – but it was hard with someone so nice.

That one hour passed way too quickly. Jane hadn’t talked to anyone that openly since… maybe for the last fifteen years. Doctor Kapoor just updated her notes, asked if she had understood this or that correctly, and otherwise did nothing but agree with Jane’s conclusion: that she felt that way because of the current situation she was in, and that getting out of it was the simple way to feel better. In the end, they both agreed that Jane would come back once she felt ready. That was all.

When Jane finally returned home, Darcy sat at the kitchen table, stirring in a giant mug of what smelt like excellent coffee. Jane tried not to sniff too audibly. She had tried to get off coffee for the past eight months.

“The way you look, _he_ looked like Channing Tatum,” Darcy said.

“There was no date,” Jane grinned. “It’s tomorrow.”

“You must be the only woman in the world who is happy when her guy doesn’t turn up. But then, you’re probably the only woman in the world who’s dated an alien with out-of-space abs, so that’s understandable.”

Jane told Darcy of her unforeseen appointment with her old doc.

“Really, that’s possible?” Darcy asked. “Although you’re a grown-up now?”

“She’s specialised in autism therapy. When I was a kid, they weren’t sure if I had it.”

Darcy looked honestly surprised.

“Did they find out?”

“Nothing concrete. My parents got their divorce, Dad and I moved to the States. He thought I was okay, so no more doctors.”

“And were you okay?”

Jane shrugged.

“I guess. How about you?”

Darcy returned the gesture.

“I guess.”

“Really?”

With a cautious gaze, Darcy gave back:

“What do you mean?”

As if Jane had been sure of that.

“I don’t know… I’m never sure if you feel alright. I can’t pay you for your work, you still haven’t graduated and – you’re not having any other jobs, do you?”

“Certainly not,” Darcy said with a whiff of offence around her nose. “And I don’t need a doctor, thanks. You couldn’t pay for one, anyway.”

“Sorry,” Jane said quietly.

Suddenly very eager to have a cup of tea, or just anything else she could hold in her hands, Jane started to rummage through the kitchen cupboards. The hot liquid was halfway through steeping when Darcy said:

“So. Date tomorrow, yes or no?”

“Yes.”

Once more, she had managed to astonish her intern tonight. If that wasn’t one for the history books…

“Why so sure? Oh, he _does_ look like Channing Tatum, doesn’t he?”

“No idea,” Jane smiled. “I just think… I think I should take things back into my own hands.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will see the return of several regular characters, so stay truned! :)
> 
> I hope you all had wonderful holidays, and if you don't celebrate, a good week. Have a very happy new year!


	4. Chapter 4

Before Jane had had to teach a full Darkelf football team how humans reacted to off-the-rules tackling, her phone had been more silent than a grumpy jellyfish. Now, after pictures of her friends and Jane dancing the limbo with Malekith had gone around the world, there was an almost constant sound of ringing coming from the device as soon as she switched it on. Mostly Jane knew better.

She could ignore the flood of e-mails – all of a sudden, spam had got a new definition – and the calls, and as Jane hadn’t felt like leaving the house since a spaceship had almost dropped on her, nobody knew which doorbell to ring in order to get on her nerves. Jane had other things to think about than what to tell journalists and the odd fan (a term Darcy had brought up, as Jane couldn’t imagine why anyone would fawn over her like a pop star – or why people fawned over pop stars), and Darcy had taken up correspondence with the scientific institutes suddenly remembering the brilliant astrophysicist who had just saved their collective grading pens.

Weird, how there was nothing she did, and yet she could not bring up the time or energy to do anything. Darcy had taken over cooking. Erik was there, and Ian, Darcy’s new boyfriend or whatever they were now. The house hadn’t been this busy as long as Jane could think. She did not think much right now, not of her own doing, but it felt good, the busyness around her. It reminded her that life went on.

Later Jane would realise that that was what they had all needed. For the moment though, she was numbly grateful for the others’ presence.

Although it had only been morning when Thor had left, by nightfall, it felt as if years had passed. Again. Darcy tried to talk to her, speaking of all the research facilities who wanted Jane to work for them. Maybe Jane was pissed off at the irony of how nobody had so much as replied to her e-mails as of last week, or maybe she simply had a relapse into last week, maybe it was the shock… or everything at once. Either way, all of a sudden, she was not interested anymore. She had lost it.

“Darcy, I’ve lost it.”

“Lost what?”

Had Darcy slept enough? She didn’t seem quite herself either.

“Everything,” Jane shrugged. She lived in a place that could not have been more strange to her, the only people she had felt okay with had left or were about to leave her (if Ian was any sign for Darcy’s plans to go by), and science – her devotion, her raison d’être, centre and definition of her life – was lost to her. She couldn’t think of the stars without thinking of everything that had happened related to her research. It had broken her heart. Not the way guys did, not the way that could be healed with lots of chocolate and venting to your best friend. Science had kicked her out. It had left her, and it hadn’t left anything to her.

“I think I’d like to talk to Doctor Kapoor,” Jane said, her voice shaking. Darcy just nodded.

“I’ll call her.”

“Thanks.”

* * *

It came back. Not that day – twenty-four hours which somehow never made it into Jane’s memory – but the very next morning. In one way or the other, this was indeed related to almost seven foot of alien flomping gracefully down onto the terrace, although not in the romantic-movie-way Jane would have wished to experience just once in her life.

Neither would Jane have expected having to comb the Lady Sif out of her mother’s geraniums – or ever having to deal with her least favourite tie enthusiast again.

“Did you bring friends?” Jane hissed when she had helped Sif up and to the back of the terrace, who moments before had dropped down in what must have been a roof climbing experience gone wrong. Everything in Jane’s tired body protested against the sudden movement. She was definitely still not awake enough for aliens.

“My apologies,” Sif whispered back, “it was not my intention to –“

“I thought so,” Jane murmured back.

Through the open terrace door, she could hear the doorbell from downstairs. She motioned Sif to stay back and glanced down from behind one of the sad geraniums.

A moment later, Jane opened the front door one floor down.

“Mr Coulson. On vacation?” The title she omitted on purpose.

“Just in the neighbourhood,” Coulson replied with his annoyingly smooth face. The man would have lied to God without so much as a twitch of his left eyelid.

“Good. Then stay there,” Jane said, about to close the door when another voice reached her ears.

“Told you to remember she’s the clever one.”

A man stepped out of a black SUV parked rather dramatically in front of the house. He wore a long black coat and, as if it wasn’t enough that aliens in mediaeval Halloween gear kept dropping on Jane’s stuff, an eye-patch. Jane immediately fought down the liking she was beginning to develop for the man, not the least because Coulson quickly handed him what looked like five quid.

“Director Nick Fury of SHIELD,” the man introduced himself, pocketing the fiver. “You know why we’d like to talk to you?”

Jane sighed, doing her best to look as exhausted as she was.

“I can’t tell you any more than you already know. Thor is gone again. I don’t know if he’ll ever – and if he – if he comes back, you’ll know that, too.”

With a small nod, Fury had Coulson go back into the car. Some guys just knew what women wanted.

“Ms Foster,” he said quietly, “you vanished from this world for a full thirty hours. We’d like to know what happened.”

“So would I.” Jane sighed. “See… I’m not having an easy time. I’m back in therapy because all of this. Maybe, one day, I can tell you. Not today though. Okay?”

Fury did not look as if this was okay to him, but finally, he gave a stiff nod of approval. “But you tell us in case Thor returns,” he added.

Jane smiled, fully aware how crooked it came out.

“With my luck, Director, you’ll be the ones informing me. This time, anyway.”

Fury stared at her, but there was nothing condescending in his gaze. As if he was actually feeling for her. Bit much, Jane decided. He’d played the good cop so well so far.

“Okay, Ms Foster. We won’t bother you any longer. But it’d help a lot if you contacted me the moment you feel ready, or whenever you learn something new. In fact, whenever I can do something for you, you let me know.”

Jane nodded, too busy biting back a big roar of laughter to bring out a verbal reply.

“I’ll have Agent Coulson leave my contact details for you. I think you’re acquainted…?”

“Sure, yeah. Thanks.”

Now it was clear: Fury had the worst humour since whoever invented back pain for upright-walking mammals. Or the best, depending on one’s point of view. Jane liked him a _lot_ , even if she wouldn’t have trusted him to bring out her bins without tinkering with them.

Coulson’s detail-leaving turned out to be a text message with several phone numbers and e-mail addresses, five of which Jane deleted immediately after closing the front door because she found the numbers and vowel patterns to be the opposite of aesthetic. She was sure that if she ever needed to contact SHIELD, she’d do so through the help of a glowy crystal ball from a joke shop and some soggy tea leaves, Darcy’s blend.

From the noise it sent through the door, Jane could hear the car outside leave. The neighbours would not be happy about the tire marks on the sidewalk. Good.

Slurping rather than walking under her growing fatigue, she went back upstairs, where Sif managed to look completely lost, sitting on the edge of the big double bed. Was it the bed having that effect on aliens? Did it maybe have that effect on everyone…? That’d have explained a lot.

“Are they gone?” Sif asked.

“Yeah. I’m sure they know you’re here though.” _And listening._

“Is Thor here?“

“You missed him. He left a day ago.”

Sif looked a little unset, the way she tried to keep herself upright on the eccentric piece of furniture. Jane decided to sit down next to her, and if to use her own shortness to make Sif feel a little more self-confident. That usually worked.

“It is not my habit to hide from friends,” Sif said apologetically, “but I could not speak to anyone in this matter.”

Jane frowned. She had not come to know this woman as someone who ever doubted themselves, much less looking like a lost puppy. Must have been a genetic thing, for Sif wasn’t the first of her people Jane saw doing this.

“What happened?”

With a glance at the door, Sif said quietly:

“I was sent to retrieve the Aether from… the world of the Darkelves.” Cute, how she tried to translate the names for Jane. “I found it, I trapped it in the device I had been given, but when I wanted to return, I fell through… some pathway between the worlds. It ended in this city.”

Sif detached a small pouch from her belt and unwrapped its contents: a simple stone, shaped like a brick, with a handy handle and a crack straight through its middle. The crack glowed fiercely when Jane laid eyes on it.

All of a sudden, Jane’s exhaustion was a thing of yesteryear. She had to dig her fingers into the sheet of the bed in order to keep herself from touching the glowing substance again. Having the Aether had not been one of Jane’s favourite experiences in life, and still… now that it lay in front of her, everything that was her yearned for getting it back.

“I didn’t know these stones come in purse-size, too. Pretty,” she snarled more to herself than in reply to Sif.

“It found you.”

“What?”

Sif quickly wrapped the device again.

“I did not know where you were, I did not expect to find you so close at all, but then… I could feel the Aether although it was trapped. It wanted to come here.”

“Missed me, aye?” Jane said with a look at Sif’s pouch, locking her whole body in a cramp just to make sure not to pat the stone and, quite accidentally, touch the red miasma it contained.

“Is that what you think?” Sif asked.

Jane shook her head. “I have no idea. Maybe it wants a host. Malekith…?”

“He is no more,” Sif confirmed. Jane wasn’t very comfortable at that, even if the old Darkelf had been a monster. She’d have preferred to settle things over a cup of tea and some calm, but decisive words of how to teach monstrous old extraterrestrials some manners. Most of them apparently needed such seminars quite badly.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Jane asked. “Do you need a place to stay?”

Sif took a deep breath before she said: “I tried to go home when I landed here, but there was no reply. That is unprecedented, except for once when… when Loki let some Frost Giants into our world.”

“Sounds like something he’d have done.”

To Jane’s surprise, Sif gave off a little laugh at this.

“It does indeed.”

Remembering her manners for a change, Jane said:

“I’m sorry. He was your friend, wasn’t he?”

“He was once. Wherever he is now.” Sif stood up, making sure the pouch was securely fastened to her belt. “We could not find him, and… the planet is empty. There is not a soul to be retrieved.”

“So who’d take away a stone cold Loki?”

Sif raised her brows, indicating that Jane had understood her words correctly. Jane decided to archive the thought of Loki’s mysterious disappearance for a time when she had enough spare energy to deal with the little arsehole’s shenanigans again. Her fatigue had not become any better, now that Sif was about to take her glowing space juice away again.

“So… what’s gonna happen to it?” Jane said, nodding at Sif’s pouch. She had taken the precaution of folding her hands behind her back.

“I do not know. Find a better place to store it, I presume.”

Jane said quietly:

“I see. If there’s something I can do to help…”

To her surprise, she felt Sif’s hand on her shoulder. Jane looked up. She’d never seen the other woman so friendly.

“You’re brave, Jane Foster. I believe it was not quite coincidence that led my way to you.”

“I hope your way home is free now,” Jane replied with a crooked smile. She could not bring herself to ask Sif for a favour: kicking a certain alien prince’s pretty butt back down to Earth.

_What if she doesn’t know that Thor wants to leave his home world?_

They stepped out onto the terrace. Sif looked up, and at the sight of the clouds above about to form a familiar colourful vortex, a smile of pure light spread all over her face. Jane let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Jane Foster,” Sif said. Jane, tired of all this alien nonsense, did the one sensible thing and pulled Sif into a hug. An awkward one, given their height difference and Sif’s odd taste in metal tops, but she learnt quick enough.

“Thanks for coming,” Jane said when Sif stepped into the rainbow beam. Once again, the miracle happened, and moments later the sunshine illuminated the empty, quiet terrace as if nothing had ever dropped into its flowerpots at all.

There was something that returned at full throttle though, and that was Jane’s fatigue. That Aether stuff should have come with a warning or twenty, “might cause withdrawal symptoms”, the way they put them onto cigarette boxes these days.

“Darcy?” Jane yelled in direction of her intern’s bedroom door, ignoring the fact that the woman was most likely fast asleep at this time of the day. After all, her unicorn bathrobe had still not been returned. “Do we have any strawberry jam left?”

She’d need a lot of that in the time to come.

* * *

Fine, so Thor returned not even one day later, and the way he appeared in a whirlwind of glittering colours and light was quite magical, and how Jane ran to him, how they kissed… it was a moment which Darcy would never fail to mention as the number one occasion when she had wished to have her phone ready (promptly followed by how Thor ran into several pots of glitter once and could not stop sparkling for a full month and a half, but that was a different story). Everything that followed that one kiss… that was work. A work that would last for the rest of Jane’s life, a labour of love… and a bloody pain in the behinds once in a while.

_When you don’t know what to do, work._ She should have had that on a t-shirt, except Darcy hated t-shirts, and the intern happened to be mistress of the loudest voice in the house. Strange thought when you had just had that sort of kiss with someone widely believed to be a deity. Deity of dorkiness and an odd behaviour around cars, certainly.

Jane opened her eyes.

“Hi,” she said sheepishly, still not quite sure whether she was dreaming. If so, then it was a darn good dream, great graphics and everything.

“Hello,” Thor smiled at her, but it wasn’t one of his beaming from-ear-to-ear smiles that could lighten up a black hole from inside (Jane had several theories as to how the physics of that would work). But he had his arms around her, and that felt far too reassuring to be healthy.

“Is everything okay?” Jane asked carefully. This time, his smile widened.

“It is now.”

From his tone, she guessed that that would have to do for now. However, the name Jane Foster had not become a synonym for thickheadedness in the world of academics because she liked nerdy t-shirts so much. Jane strengthened her grip around Thor’s upper arm, although her fingers could hardly reach half around his biceps, and the metal covering it rendered the whole enterprise quite useless. Well, it was the gesture that counted.

“Did he let you go?” she asked quietly, but with a determination as unavoidable as Lady Beatrice’s dinner table rules.

Thor nodded, finally saying:

“Yes. He was quite understanding.”

“Signs and wonders,” Jane said before she could bite her tongue. “Sorry.”

He laughed quietly, but the amusement faded from his face a tad too quickly for Jane’s taste.

“What is it?” she asked.

Thor shook his head. “I cannot quite describe it,” he said after a second of reflection, “except that I was sure that Father showed me an illusion of himself. He must be quite weak.”

Or just too lazy to put on pants, Jane thought. She looked down and took a deep breath, in and out. Then she looked up into Thor’s eyes again.

“I can only say this again: if you want to go back –“

“No! Jane, you don’t understand!”

“Not the first time. Comes with being a goat at a banquet table,” she said, suddenly regretting the perfect romance scene before. Men simply weren’t worth the fuss.

Fortunately, she had got one who at least was a quick learner. Thor hastened to say:

“You cannot understand, nobody could. Except for…” He stopped, but Jane could fill in the names rather easily. “To go back would mean the throne, and I cannot do that. Not for my sake, not for anyone’s sake. As much as I have always wanted to be as my father once was, I cannot and I will not. I would make a poor king indeed.” Thor paused, then added more quietly: “I wish Loki were there to stand where I dare not tread.”

“Careful what you wish for,” Jane murmured.

“I wish he… had not strayed.”

Jane thought back to Sif, sighing at the thought of what she would say next:

“You leave your world without a king then.”

“I am not king. It is not my worry.”

Too surprised by this reply, Jane did not notice how the French windows behind her opened.

“You two coming in, or do you want me to bring you a tent? Romantic setting and so on,” Darcy said with a grin. Jane had always hoped to see that Darcy could completely mess up a joke, but now she wished she’d been more careful with her wishes, too.

They went down to the kitchen, where Erik was still lurking over a mug of coffee while Ian had dried the dishes. They looked happy enough at Thor’s return. Good on them. Jane wasn’t quite sure anymore whether her longing for an extraterrestrial boyfriend had been such a wise move.

The thump of three empty mugs being more or less thrown down onto the table woke Jane from her brooding.

“So you’re part of the team now, big guy?” Darcy snarled at a satisfyingly bewildered-looking Thor whilst pouring the coffee. “Three rules: no showers longer than seven minutes, the only situation in which the toilet seat is allowed to be in upright position is when you clean it, and Jane sleeps on the left side of the bed. Got that?”

On the other hand, there were days when Darcy was the best intern Jane could have wished for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! :)


	5. Chapter 5

It should not have been so easy. It should not have been so damn hard.

“Attention, attention, load of cupcakes coming through,” Darcy’s voice let the whole kitchen know.

There were only the three of them: Jane, Thor and the ever so helpful intern. Ian’s visits had quickly become less frequent, which wasn’t much of a surprise to Jane. Neither was Erik’s growing reluctance to be around, although it made her a little sad. Jane had known of Erik’s disapproval, back when Thor had made his first experiences in how to behave around human ceramics. She’d hoped all the more that her former mentor would get over his top dog issues. Maybe the new doctor Darcy had found for Erik could help.

“They’re not cupcakes, they’re pies,” Jane said. She had recently tried to improve the nutritional value of her baked creations, with Thor and Darcy happily volunteering for tastings. Meat and vegetables, cooked short enough to preserve vitamins and the hint of flavours – not a treat of the traditional kitchen, but then, you couldn’t have everything.

“Are that all boxes?”

“The blankets are packed,” Thor reported from the other side of the hallway. Having him to do the heavy lifting was more than practical, that Jane agreed on. Basically everything that wasn’t personal between them was fantastic. Easy, wasn’t it?

“Got the kits,” Darcy’s voice said from up the stairs, where she had prepared small bags containing some necessities of everyday life – toothpaste, energy bars, wet wipes and the like.

These bags were the result of some internet research Jane had done in order to improve the quality of the support they brought to the people of F. Street. Apparently the repurposing of Darcy’s former crafts blog to a project to help the homeless did flow well with their readership, as it was their continued donations which had made these extras possible.

“That’s all,” Jane shouted back into the hallway, their signal to leave. The kitchen was still a mess, but she looked forward to cleaning it up when they were back. Whatever kept her busy.

Although back on Earth for the third day now, Thor seemed to share Jane’s general cluelessness about the big What Now. He had contacted his Avengers friends, but there was nothing to do for them at the moment. SHIELD had sent an e-card, an action which according to Darcy was “so 2005”. Apart from that, Thor did whatever he was told by the ladies of the household, including that Wednesday when Darcy had wanted her cloud cupcakes with real lightning.

Even before Thor’s return, Jane had called herself stupid for somehow, secretly, thinking that just so long as he came back to her, everything would sort out itself. Even then, she had known that it wasn’t about him, but that it was about everything: her work, friends, family, love, research projects, recognition. She had all that now, in one way or the other, and she wanted to be happy and grateful for the chance, accepting the opportunities handed to her both career-wise and concerning her private life… still, nothing.

“Give yourself some time,” Darcy had said last night, when Jane had used the chance of Thor taking a bath to have a whispered conversation with her intern. Well, actually it had been Darcy poking her boss into telling her how it went with their freshly adopted alien puppy.

“I’ve wasted enough time, I want to use some for a change,” Jane had grumbled.

“You know, every other woman sharing their slumber puddle with a guy of that build would look a lot happier. And more relaxed, too.”

Jane had been more than grateful for the sound of the opening bathroom door in that moment. Her bedroom decorations was another topic she did not want to discuss with Darcy, at least not at the moment.

Suppressing a yawn with all her might, Jane picked up her box of pies and went after Jane and Darcy, who had already left the hallway. This constant fatigue was starting to annoy her really badly. She had almost fallen asleep during the second tray of pies in the oven. During the third, she had snuggled up on the flour- and dough-sprinkled kitchen table. Darcy had laughed so much when she had picked the little pieces of dough out of Jane’s hair.

Darcy went first, as usual, as the three of them tiptapped through the November fog. Jane wondered how the short intern, devoted to smug eye-rolling when it came to the fitness craze, could pick such a pace, carrying two loads of pies as well as all of the necessity gift bags. She wished they could have slowed down a little, as the box in Jane’s arms was not getting any lighter.

“Hold on,” a deep voice said next to her. Jane jumped in surprise. It said a lot about how tired she was if she could overlook the seven foot of alien next to her and the five boxes he balanced. Five became six when Thor took Jane’s box with a single hand.

“Hey!” she complained. It was nice of him to play the knight in shining armour, or to be correct, leftover jeans, but what use did she have if she came along without carrying anything?

“Take this one,” Thor said, dropping one of the blanket bundles into her arms. It was bigger than her box, but much lighter. When Jane looked up, Thor winked at her. She couldn’t help but grin.

Their arrival in F. Street caused quite a ruckus. The news of how Darcy and Jane had saved Earth from Malekith’s little helpers hadn’t just spread, they’d left everyone in acute worry about the two women’s wellbeing. That they showed up happy and healthy seemed much more important than what they brought along this day, although bringing Thor had definitely been a good idea. He had made a dozen friends after the first five minutes.

“Where’s Mrs Blonski?” Jane asked quietly while the major attention had shifted to Thor and his tale of Darkelf juggling. Ms Powel leant over.

“Not so well,” she whispered. “Says she’s seen something. Talks gibberish.”

“The Devil,” a horse voice said behind them. Jane spun around to where Mrs Blonski huddled over her walking stick. “It was the Devil.” Ms Powel said:

“They found some bloke in one of the bystreets last night. Nasty business. Some animal did it, by the looks of it. Must have been some big dog or something.”

“It was the Devil. He was a bad man, and the Devil came to take him. That’s how it was.”

“A… bad man?” Jane asked quietly.

Ms Powel said:

“Someone the world won’t miss, if you get my meaning. We made sure not to be around when he was here. Nasty bloke. Nasty.”

Jane was saved from having to reply by Mr Jiddles, who tried to give her a stern lecture on not to run into malevolent extraterrestrials. Jane bit her tongue in order not to reply something containing the words “Loki” and “meet the in-laws-to-be“. Come to speak of the in-laws…

“Darling? Remind me to introduce you to my mother as soon as possible,” Jane said with the sweetest smile she could fake. Thor glanced at her with a hint of wariness on his face. She grinned, this time for real, before wrapping up her empty bag. The blankets had been a good idea, although bright pink was not a colour of wool Jane would buy again.

The gathering of people had not gone unnoticed. More and more passersby stopped doing so – passing by – and instead craned their necks to see what the hubbub was about. It didn’t help much that Thor stuck out of the crowd like an uncooked spaghetti in a bowl of rice. When Jane noticed the first phone being held up, she tugged alien and intern behind the corner of a shop and, using their newfound knowledge of the bystreet jungle, back home.

“Were you jesting when you mentioned…” Thor started when they had finished clearing away the baking mess. Darcy was upstairs, catching up on her afternoon nap. Ever since Thor had moved in, Darcy had made sure not to miss a single meal, probably to make sure she got enough food. Practical thinking had a tradition in the House Darcy, _We Wear Hats_.

“Introducing you to my mother?” Jane clapped the dishwasher shut. “Seriously, you don’t want that to be anything but a joke.”

She bit her lip. Ignoring her mother’s three calls by day was easy enough, but there had been a handful of rather worried text messages from Richard. She felt she owed the guy, but she didn’t want him to feel too hopeful. If he’d seen the news…

“I would like to meet her.”

Jane smiled tiredly.

“Sure, that’s what you say now. But I’m not going to have her scare away another boyfriend of mine.”

“Has she done so?” Thor asked with an astonished face. Too cute to be allowed.

Laughing quietly, Jane took the mug from Thor’s hands and filled it with steaming hot tea.

“Really, if there’s anything you don’t want to do too soon, it’s getting to know my mother.”

Jane stopped, suddenly out of words. She added milk to the two tea mugs and sat down at the kitchen table, her cup still too hot to touch. Instead, she watched Thor’s fingers form a ring around his mug, enjoying the heat, but not quite touching the porcelain. His hand was so big that it could cover the cup completely.

They were taking their time. They were so clearly taking their time that, while Jane had once wished that to be the case with all of her cases of once-upon-a-time-prince-charming-forever-after… she now wished Darcy and her practical thinking had done the wishing for her, too.

Whatever had gone on between Jane and Thor, it had stopped going there and instead decided to take a prolonged stay at a station hotel, its bar and mini supermarket, and without knowing what the mini bar was for. They hadn’t even kissed, ever since his return. Whatever Darcy imagined to go on in the master bedroom at night, it was less exciting than a game of solitaire. Thor still insisted every night to sleep on the couch downstairs, and Jane insisted every night that he was too tall for it (which wasn’t quite untrue). They each kept to their side of the bed so carefully that Jane woke up with muscle cramps more than often, and besides those, it was nightmares and shivering – the room hadn’t gotten any cosier, alien housemate or no.

The tea burnt her mouth, but Jane sipped it nonetheless. Thor sniffed at his cup before trying. Carefully he asked:

“Is this… Darjeeling?”

“I think so.” Jane felt her eyelids droop. The tea’s heat was doing its work, and she wished she could have been in bed. A real bed, with nice covers… “Oh God, I forgot the cookies.”

She was halfway through heaving herself from her chair when Thor put the box of biscuits on the table in front of her. Jane grunted her gratefulness. She hardly noticed when he took her hand.

“Jane, what is it?”

“Just a bit tired. It’s okay,” she said, waving away Thor’s other arm trying to support her.

“Is it because of the Aether?”

“I think so.”

No need to lie.

Thor took her hands again. “You should see a healer.”

“They won’t be able to do any more than last time, and I don’t want your Dad…”

“He would not insult you again,” Thor said quietly. “I will not allow it.”

Jane did not answer. She couldn’t have cared less about the old fart’s opinion of her. What she couldn’t allow was Thor getting into the middle of it all again. He needed his family so much. He missed them so much. The sadness gave her a stomach ache. If Jane had been able to give Thor back what he had lost, no matter what the price, she’d have done it for him.

Before she knew what was happening, she was lifted from her chair. She must have fallen asleep for a moment, for the next thing she noticed was Thor carrying her over to the stairs.

“Not that awful bed,” she complained. Thor stopped, but instead of setting her down onto her feet, he went over to the little used living room.

The sofa there was indeed better than the disappointment of furniture in the room upstairs. Tucked into a thick blanket moments later, Jane felt her fatigue finally winning over. She bit her teeth, anything to stay awake.

“I can’t nap now,” she insisted.

“It is fine. I will go to the shop, you can sleep.” Thor tucked the blanket in where Jane had pulled it back. “Steve has informed me that my card is functional.”

Apparently the Avengers had a steady income from merchandise and TV rights now. The first thing Thor had offered after those news was to chip in for their living circumstances. They hadn’t come very far with that discussion yet, and the sudden smell of burnt breakfast buns in the oven had only been partly responsible for that.

“No, I’ll come with you. Just need… a moment,” Jane said, taking Thor’s hand. He sat down with her on the couch.

For a moment they both stayed silent. Half asleep, Jane asked:

“Have you ever been in love before?”

Okay, maybe she should indeed catch up on sleep as soon as possible.

She blinked up at Thor, but he just smiled:

“No.”

“Sure your Dad didn’t just scare them away?”

He laughed.

“In some way, you are right to think so. We were always instructed not to do these things lightly, so we did not. At least, I think we did not.”

Jane was not groggy enough to ask who “we” stood for, and which parts of the story Thor wasn’t sure about. He softly caressed her hair, but she wriggled out from under his hand, deeper into the blanket. It wasn’t something she was used to enough to feel comfortable. She just hoped that her reaction didn’t spoil this… like it had so often before.

“Where I come from, it is not called love from the beginning.”

Suddenly interested, Jane peeked up from underneath her blanket again.

“Tell me more.”

Without releasing her hand, Thor sat down on the ground, leaning on the couch so that his eyes and Jane’s were on one level.

“When two of my people feel attracted to each other, they will meet frequently for at least one year. If that does not separate them, they may ask their clans to be allowed visits in each other’s homes.”

Gently he stroked her fingers.

“Some share rooms immediately, others do not. If they want, and their family can afford it, they may move into some smaller accommodations of their own, although that rarely happens any earlier than after three years. Only if that succeeds for at least seven years, and the two clans still agree, there may be an engagement, and that engagement period…”

“Lasts fifty years?” Jane grinned. It made Thor laugh.

“Twenty years, I think. I am not quite sure because it was… would have been a little different for my brother and me.”

“How so?”

His face grew solemn again.

“When a king is crowned, and he is not married or betrothed to anyone, he needs to find a wife within three years. That is the law of old.”

Jane felt an ugly knot form in her stomach.

“So when your father kept pushing you to take the throne…”

“He tried to help me find a suitable spouse, too, yes. I would not dare to do that to the Lady Sif though. Not with all the things she might do to my head once she finds out about her responsibilities – or the required wardrobe.”

Jane chose not to say anything. She hadn’t told Thor of Sif’s visit yet, for reasons she herself couldn’t quite understand. It wasn’t jealousy, she realised when she thought back to the fragile sadness on Sif’s face at the mention of her friend’s name. It was a sort of worry for the other woman.

“Doing what to her?”

“The throne,” Thor said with a bitter smile. “I would not take that burden upon me, and I have been raised for doing no else. Sif, however… court would suck the air out of her lungs, the fire out of her soul.”

“Did you ever consider whether you two could be in love?” Jane asked more coldly than she had intended. It was the truth though. The way Thor spoke, he could have planned the setup of a football team. On the other hand, maybe that wasn’t so ridiculous a comparison.

When she looked back at Thor’s face, Jane could not hide a little gasp of shock. He did not notice, his gaze locked in some sphere she could not enter. Devoid of expression, he looked old – no, ageless, and cold as stone. Jane had never been so aware of how she kept forgetting that she was not talking to a human being, a man looking hardly her own age, but a specimen of a more or less completely different species. That Thor could hide the millennium that was his lifetime behind that adorkable smile most of the time, and how readily he was able to turn out the homo sapiens on the spot, spoke of the good heart underneath all that power, as much as his will to fit in with his chosen friends. She took this for granted too often.

“We do not procreate easily,” Thor said, at least some of the warmth Jane missed so much returning into his face. “My parents were married for thirty-five human generations before I was born. The common clans are numerous enough to allow some of their members to stay childless, indeed, it is encouraged to prevent overpopulation. The royal family, however, is kept small to avoid inheritance conflicts.”

Once more, Jane kept herself from asking about Loki. “So you’re required to produce heirs,” she said instead.

“One, and to bring him to ascension,” Thor said, his expression hinting at all the things included in that simple sentence, but not spelled out. “How it is done does not matter.” Jane shuddered. Maybe Thor’s decision to leave the throne behind was more understandable than she had admitted to herself so far.

“Well, thanks for not asking me to ass-guard that throne with you.” To her relief, Thor laughed. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to get that pun out,” Jane added.

“Will you tell me how humans form the bond then?”

Thor covered her hand with both of his and laid down on his elbow. Head tilted, a little smile lingering on his lips, he seemed once more transformed back into a young, carefree man of around thirty years. Minus the pseudo-Shakespearian English mixed with bits and pieces picked up from Darcy and what sounded quite like Tony Stark, maybe.

“Similar, just quicker – and if you try to ask my mother for permission if you can move in with me, good luck with that moat and drawbridge.”

Once more, Thor laughed quietly, but it was a tired laugh. As his head sank onto his elbow once more, Jane pulled her hand from underneath his and, after a moment of hesitation, caressed his hair. He smiled as his eyes closed. Something she should remember he liked. A moment later, a soft snore indicated that Thor had fallen asleep.

Because fate was an arsehole, Jane did not find any of the sleep she lacked that afternoon, before they finally got up to restock the kitchen with baking supplies and enough groceries to feed two and a half enthusiastic eaters. And because Jane was an arsehole when it came to dealing with fate, she enjoyed the time she could spend watching over Thor who, for once, didn’t have a single nightmare.

That stupid bed had to go.

* * *

Wasn’t it strange, how at first Jane had not been able to get used to getting settled, and now she was getting used to not getting used to it? Somehow, it all just fit together in the way it did not: discussing cereal versus porridge, having Erik over for a lecture about the shaving techniques of male humans, sharing a room with her alien lover without ever so much as exchanging a kiss. It was too surreal to be anything but real, that much Jane had learnt during her academic years.

Speaking of academics, fortunately Darcy had given up poking her about making a decision concerning her career. The answer had always been the same: not now. Jane could not explain this answer, except that the exhaustion she felt had not lifted, not even a little, not even a bit. If she had enough energy for the next day of baking, an activity that didn’t require much more than following the recipes scribbled into her old notebook and standing upright for a while, then that was a lot. Deciding about her academic future in this condition was not an option.

One of the nice bits in the mess was that she had more time for Thor, because he had questions. Lots of questions.

“Why would humans prefer the prepared flavourless bun and meat over homemade dishes?” was one Jane could answer, and yes, Thor was a snob when it came to food – or so Jane thought before she tried her first burger after three years of blissful abstinence thanks to instant noodles. At “If the device’s hull is produced in great numbers, how can it express individuality?” she needed Darcy’s learned assistance in everything pop culture, and with “Why do human men have such a bad reputation regarding the cleanliness of the bathroom?” the three of them gave up. Darcy, however, suggested to call Erik with the barest hint of smugness on her face.

“Human men can be a mystery to me,” Jane shrugged. “That’s why I’m so glad I have you.”

She grinned at Thor who was standing next to her, gently bumping against his side. He smiled back in his lighting-the-room-and-possibly-half-the-street way. “The feeling is mutual.” At least they were on the same level of romantic eloquence: laughable level.

Jane activated her hand mixer, the sound turning all attempts at conversation fruitless, while Thor held the bowl for her. It was the easier job, as the bread dough pushed against the machine’s kneading hooks, not so much the container, but Jane had insisted to do this part. “Darcy wants me to pick up a sport, so this is my workout substitute,” she kept saying. In contrast to actual sports, this was fun to her though. Kneading the dough by hand would have been better, but she didn’t feel up to it most days.

When the dough had turned from rough goo into a smooth, spongy blob, Jane carefully lowered the mixing speed before switching off the machine. She covered the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and placed it under the heater. While they were gone, the yeast in the dough would make it rise beautifully, to be baked into little buns when they returned. Jane loved rising dough, with all the science and apparent magic it involved. Of course the not-quite-slimy texture was great fun, too, but she wouldn’t have told anyone.

It was dark when Jane, Thor, Darcy and several dozen sandwiches arrived in F. Street. A mean fog drifted around the corners of the buildings, a lot of them as dark as the afternoon – mean because it had a habit of creeping under Jane’s shawl and making her shiver. Terrible manners, this stuff. She wondered if it was just Earth, or if the weather on Thor’s world behaved just as insufferably. They probably named every low after Loki.

“Where is everyone?” Darcy said.

They looked around. The street was indeed empty. Neither the odd pedestrian could be seen, nor had the common traffic jam decided to visit today. Maybe the fog was even more unpopular than Jane had thought. On the other hand, the place did not feel empty. It was a sensation she couldn’t explain, but…

“Over there!”

Almost at the end of the street, where the sidewalk made a loop around a larger building, the shadows formed a prism of darkness. It was there that Jane could make out the back of Mrs Blonski’s ragged plush coat.

The people of F. Street huddled around something on the ground, half hidden behind several large bins. Jane craned her neck, but she couldn’t see anything besides a lot of backs. Only when Thor stepped behind her, Ms Powel and the others noticed them.

“She appeared out of nowhere,” a brittle old man whose name Jane did not know said. “Please help her, Doctor.”

Jane needed a second to understand that he meant her.

“I’m not that sort of doctor, I’m an…”

Darcy had knelt down next to the small figure in the corner – most likely a woman, it was hard to tell.

“She’s breathing, but she’s very cold. Hello, can you hear me? What’s your name?” Darcy asked. Nothing happened. Jane pulled her phone out of her pocket.

“That’s it, I’m calling an ambu-“

Jane was quite aware that she didn’t have the voice of an opera singer, but she’d never claimed that it could bring people back from unconsciousness. Still, the words seemed to do their work, for the woman gasped, blinking wildly, apparently too cold to move. Jane was about to introduce herself when the woman looked up, her lips moving in the try to form some words.

“… Thor?” she rasped.

Typical.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just noticed as of last week or so that I've probably made a grammatical error in the very title of this story - should it be "The House Foster" perchance? - and that it's a little late to change that now. Sniff.
> 
> Besides that, the slower a relationship development in a story, the more fun. Eheheh.


	6. Chapter 6

“I never thought this internship included explaining what shampoo is to aliens. Twice,” Darcy said, taking a stack of clothes Jane handed her. The stranger they had found was approximately Darcy’s height, but much skinnier, so Jane’s clothes would fit her better.

“It never said ‘picking up stray extraterrestrials’ in my study guide either,” Jane gave back, although not half as biting as the words could have sounded. She was still deep in thought about their new guest.

The woman had not said much more, except for some mumbling that Mrs Blonski had identified as Eastern-European or maybe Northern Asian, but nothing she could understand. So wobbly on her own feet that she could hardly stand upright, Thor had thought it a better idea to carry their new guest the short distance back to the house. However, even here, in better light, he had not recognised her.

Jane Doe had turned out a haggard young woman, easily mistakable for a girl, with unkempt, thin hair, no longer than two inches at its best (which wasn’t much to go by), sickly pale and dirty skin that made her eyes seem even larger and strangely yellow, and clothes that reeked to Heaven. Jane had made very sure to dispose of those first, after Darcy had taken it upon her to show their guest to the bathroom facilities. Something had been odd about those clothes, too. They were not factory made, actually they looked like something out of a mediaeval museum, except worn for at least some decades – or maybe more. Jane’s current theory ran along the lines of the woman being a native of Thor’s world, recognising the former crown prince, but never having met him in person. How she had come to Earth, and why she could not speak, remained a puzzle to be solved.

“Has she told you her name?” Jane asked.

Darcy shook her head. “She keeps saying something, but I can’t understand it, so I called her Jay and she didn’t seem to have a problem with that. For Jane Doe, because two of you isn’t something I’m getting paid enough for.”

Jane grunted at her, but Darcy just stuck her tongue out, grinned, and vanished down the hallway to deliver the pile of clothes.

Alone in the kitchen once more, Jane stood by herself, painfully aware of having nothing she could do. Darcy had set up a pot of chicken soup, and Thor was gone back to his world in the attempt of finding out about their mystery guest. That the portal had opened for him should count as a good sign, shouldn’t it? She hoped sincerely that it would bring him back, too. Otherwise, they’d find out what a goat at a banquet table could do with a dozen pots of glitter and a value pack of popsicle sticks. Well, stirring glitter, mostly.

Someone seemed to have read her thoughts, for the moment Jane looked out of the window, stirring the soup whilst praying it wouldn’t turn into glitter, a rainbow storm disturbed the neighbours’ careful feng shui bin arrangement. Seconds later, Jane threw her arms around the highest part of Thor’s chest she could reach.

“You’re back…” she mumbled against his shirt.

“I am,” he laughed, stroking her hair. “And I have news.”

They sat down in the kitchen, a fresh pot of tea on the table, and more of the steaming liquid in their mugs. Thor’s cup showed a fluffy cartoon bunny, Jane’s spelled out “You don’t have to be insane to work here, but it helps”. With quiet urgency in her voice she said:

“Did you recognise her? Did your father –“

“I did not speak to my father,” Thor replied with a certain glint in his eyes that hinted at the reasons for that decision. “Nobody sees more than the gatekeeper.”

They were interrupted by the sound of the bathroom door. A moment later, Darcy carried the stranger, or Jay, into the kitchen. Jane and Thor jumped to their feet, but Darcy had the woman lowered onto a chair before they could do anything.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Darcy waved. “Someone doesn’t know why you shouldn’t stay in a very hot tub for too long if you can’t handle that much awesomeness.”

Although still dizzy from the bath, the woman seemed a little more herself now. Cheeks – or what was visible of them – showing some rosy spots, hair an ashen blond, she looked skinny even in Jane’s silly bathrobe. The woman stretched her hand out for the mug of tea Jane had placed in front of her. In the very last second, Jane could stop her from touching the hot porcelain.

“Careful!”

The stranger stared at her, eyes wide with shock. Jane touched the mug with the tips of her fingers, quickly pulling them back. “It’s still hot,” she said, not sure whether the woman could understand her. The gesturing seemed to work, for Jay, her movements careful, her eyes darting back and forth between Jane and the mug, withdrew her hand.

“Maybe serving hot soup wasn’t one of my best ideas,” Darcy said with a glance at the scene. “I never thought we’d get such a temperature problem. Is this an extraterrestrial thing?” she asked Thor. He gave her a mildly confused look before handing out bowlfuls of soup.

Their guest seemed to have decided that Jane was in charge of things. She scrutinised every movement of Jane’s, including how to get both noodles and broth onto one spoon, bring it to cool down, and finally manage to manoeuvre the concoction into one’s mouth without spilling its contents. In the end, chicken soup was _science_.

“So, do you have a name?” Darcy said when she dished out a second round of soup. The woman, having emptied her bowl to the last drop of broth as if it were liquid life, did not even notice that someone was talking to her.

Thor leant over and said something in a soft voice. The language sounded strange, guttural, and containing a lot of juicy consonants, but not bad, nothing Jane had ever heard before. Well, as Darcy would have said, if someone had talked to her in that tender, clicking way, Jane wouldn’t have minded the whole meaning thingy.

The woman, however, seemed indeed to understand, or at least she nodded.

“What was that?” Darcy blurted out.

“My native language,” Thor replied with a little smile before looking back at their guest. Jane stared at him, stupefied by her own naiveté. Had she honestly believed that beings from other solar systems spoke English? The sheer amount of questions this implied made her brain hurt.

The nameless guest opened her mouth to say something, but no sound was to be heard. She shook her head, suddenly shivering, mumbled, broke off, inhaled deeply, then just sat there. Head hanging low, shoulders twitching, she looked inches away from a breakdown. A feeble sound that could have been a derivate of “sorry” came from her lips.

Immediately Thor put a hand on her bony little shoulder, rubbing it gently, and said something soothing in his language. Darcy was on her feet again, half-hugging the stranger, cooing “It’s okay, it’s alright” over and over. Jane just tried not to stare too hard, once more at a loss what to do. Their guest’s distress waved around her like the sad sister of the former Mister Mean Fog. Why couldn’t she be better at these things?

The sensation of being watched broke her out of her self-pity. Jane looked up, finding the woman gazing shyly at her. Trying to smile in what she hoped look reassuring, Jane awkwardly patted the stranger’s hand and repeated Darcy’s “It’s okay, really”. It seemed to have at least a little effect. Strange, how easy these things seemed. Maybe that was how they worked, just like household remedies against colds and muscle strain.

Darcy left the cleaning of the table to Thor, and Jane used the chance to leave the kitchen. She had to keep herself from running.

A little while later, she was preparing the sofa with sheets, pillows and an extra blanket when Darcy brought in their guest.

“Sorry about the couch, there’s no other guest room…” Jane tried to smile. She wasn’t quite sure whether the woman would care about guest rooms, even if she understood their language. “Sleep well,” Jane managed to say. She’d never been a champion at small talk, but with an opposite who did not reply, it became quantum science. Well. Maybe literature studies, in Jane’s case.

“Sweet dreams,” Darcy said before closing the door.

They went back to the kitchen, where Thor had started the dishwasher. For the approximately twelfth time this week, Jane wondered how perfectly human he looked – when he wanted to look that way. If one could ignore his height and build, which was, she would readily admit, not that easy to do.

“Tell us her name!” Darcy poked the moment the kitchen door closed behind them.

Thor gratefully accepted the cup of tea Jane handed him. “I’m afraid that has been lost,” he said.

“ _Lost?_ ”

“She vanished about eight hundred years ago, when I was but a lad myself. It is little wonder if she has forgotten her name.”

Jane asked:

“Are there no records?”

“There will be, but not many, and deeply hidden, too. Eight hundred years is a long time, even for us,” Thor answered. “Besides, she is Rianese. Ria is a sister world of ours.”

“Is that why she can’t understand us?”

Thor hesitated, then said:

“I do not think so. I learnt your language by listening to you. I think… you have so many languages, which is why I assume that you do not sense the meaning of a word when it is spoken to you, do you?”

Darcy gawked, but Jane said:

“No, we can’t do telepathy, at least not on such a high level. We have to memorise words and their meanings.”

He nodded without any trace of hauteur, then said:

“I may err, but it seems as if she has lost that ability, or has not used it for a long time. She could hardly remember a word in her native language. The Rianese tongue is close to ours,” he added.

Darcy’s eyes had narrowed.

“You know her. You just didn’t recognise her.”

“According to Heimdall, I surely do.” A hint of sadness crept into Thor’s smile. “We are cousins.”

Now it was Jane’s turn to be speechless. Behind Thor’s back, Darcy went to the kitchen cupboard, took out the box of sprinkles, and knocked back what looked like half the package. Only then she sat down with them at the kitchen table again.

“You people have serious soap opera problems,” she rasped in Thor’s direction. “How can you just _lose_ a cousin?”

“Ria was attacked by dragons at the time. The princess went missing, assumed to be one of the many who fell victim to the beasts.”

Darcy took a large gulp of tea, then said:

“So. What do we call her?”

* * *

Rain fell this night, a rotten weather to be out. However, with their latest adopted stray blocking the living room, the study still cluttered with mountains of crafts supplies and the kitchen constantly in use, Darcy did not feel like staying indoors. The house, not what she’d have called a cosy nest to begin with, had become decidedly too full for her taste. She needed air to breathe and a decent drink. Preferably sponsored by a decently rich bachelor. Didn’t have to be her personal Prince Charming, a multi millionaire or super model would do. _If_ they had a private chocolate fountain, after all, a lady should never give herself away beneath her standing.

Light shimmered through the crack under the master bedroom’s door, indicating that Jane and Thor were already in there, doing whatever Darcy certainly didn’t want to interrupt, or which at least she hoped they were doing. She went downstairs, where everything was dark. This indicated that their mysterious guest had not mutated into a betentacled abomination, oozing slime all over the living room couch – Darcy was quite fond of that couch. Best piece of furniture in the whole house, especially when Jane had covered all of the floor with her printouts again. At one point, Darcy had been sure her boss had accidentally shaped a macro collage of Frank Sinatra.

She stopped in front of the living room door – no sound from inside. That should mean no snoring. Not the worst prospect, considering Jane’s habit of permanent alien adoption.

Darcy sighed. She was too good for this world.

Just to make sure their new housemate hadn’t been eaten by the revenge of the dust bunnies, Darcy opened the door an inch wide and peeked inside. The light from the street outside was enough to make out the shapes of cupboards, sideboards, chessboard, a sad lack of surfboards – and a very barren couch. The pillow did not show any signs of ever having cradled E.T.’s head.

Typical.

“Jay? Thor’s cousin? Little chicken soup princess?”

A movement in the corner of the room made Darcy reach for the light switch – and, something that did not happen quite so easily in standard Darcy mode, gawk.

The thin woman had curled up in the corner of the room, on the bare floor, without blanket or sheets. Judging from the expression of nonchalant confusion on her face, she had no idea why Darcy found that sleeping habit so outstanding.

“Why are you sleeping on the floor?” Darcy tried, but either Jay hadn’t understood, or she did indeed not see why that was such an odd thing to do.

With a sigh, Darcy dropped her bag and went over to where Jay sat. She helped her up, then guided her to the sofa.

“This is a pillow. Works like this,” she explained, holding the cushion to her ear. Still no sign of understanding. Darcy sighed.

“You know what, the couch was a bad idea. You can sleep in my room, I won’t be back before breakfast anyway.”

Jay followed her upstairs, which Darcy took as a sign that the woman had a basic grasp of English, even if she didn’t speak. The sight of the things in the room – some clothes, a handful of books, Darcy’s laptop on the desk – seemed to confuse Jay. It needed an extra invitation to remind her that rooms where meant to be lived in, with the emphasis on _in_.

“Come on, sleepy times,” Darcy said, helping the woman into her bed before tucking her in. The poor thing was awfully meagre, and so terribly cold. Darcy bit her lip for not checking sooner.

“Are you okay? Do you want anything, a cup of tea?” she asked, not quite sure if that weren’t too many words for the alien. To her great surprise, Jay managed to shake her head. That should count as a first success in intergalactic communication, shouldn’t it?

Darcy snatched one of her books. Change of plans.

“If there’s something you need, I’ll be downstairs in the living room, okay?” she said.

Jay, curled up into a tiny ball of alien again, nodded.

Once more, Darcy wished her a good night and switched off the lights before leaving the room and closing the door behind her. With her luck, this was to be the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

* * *

“You don’t have to go to bed yet,” Jane said. “I’m just a bit tired. Stay up if you like.”

“It is very well with me. It was… it was a strange day,” Thor said with an expression she could not quite read. Fortunately Jane was used to not getting what people meant. Made the whole thing so much more entertaining.

“Is it because of your cousin?” she asked with what felt to her like the grace of a horde of drunk elephants.

Instead of answering, Thor sat down next to her on the bed. As strange as it sounded, Jane loved the way he used to sit next to her, especially when they were alone. Not close, not even touching, but instead in perfect parallelism, elbows resting on his knees, the way teammates sat next to each other on the bench during a match. It was what had made her fall in love with him in the first place: that they were a team, first and foremost. There may have been many better lovers in the galaxy, but there was no better friend.

“You found her. She’s safe now. That’s good, isn’t it?” Jane tried, taking Thor’s hand in what she hoped felt reassuring.

Thor was about to reply when he looked down on their hands, brow suddenly knitted.

“You’re cold.”

“Just tired…”

She had given her bathrobe to their guest. This dreadful fatigue was really starting to get on Jane’s nerves.

Before she could so much as protest, Thor took her in his arms and shoved her underneath the Blanket of Fail – a result that was definitely not getting on Jane’s nerves. He lay down next to her, switching off the lamp on the bedside table, when he noticed her shivering.

“Wait,” Thor said. He got up, a mere silhouette in the city gloom. Something sparked, there was the sound of metal things clanging against each other, and then the glow vanished again. A moment later, Thor climbed back into bed, clearly still wearing his t-shirt and jogging trousers. The fabric he draped around Jane’s shoulders she recognised though:

“You can’t – that’s your cape!” Jane hissed in shock.

Shoving back the miserable blanket so he could wrap Jane properly in the miraculously soft, almost fluffy material, Thor replied:

“You need better covers.”

“But…” By God, that stuff felt like Heaven in layers. Neither too thin nor too warm, the fabric smelt of nothing but cleanness, a touch of rain, and age-old threads that had lost all odour of their own. Beneath that, there was a hint of Thor’s smell: no more than a subtle trace of dry sand. If the perfume industry had ever wanted to gain Jane Foster for a customer, this would have been the fragrance they should have created. “But I’ll make creases.”

“No, you won’t,” he chuckled. Aliens and their super fabrics.

She knew she was asking for a lot, but this was too perfect to miss the chance.

“Can you hug me?”

Without replying, Thor wiggled closer and put an arm around her. “Like so?”

“Bear hug,” Jane pouted, relieved to hear him chuckle, and then both his arms tightened around her. She snuggled up against his chest, burying her face in the well-worn shirt of his.

“Like this,” she mumbled through a flattened nose.

It was her first night in the house during which Jane did not feel cold. Neither did she have any nightmares, at least none that woke her up. Thor had two, but both times she could help him wake before it became too bad. Still, his second nightmare was heavier. Afterwards, they both lay in the gloom of dawn, blinking tiredly at each other, Jane stroking Thor’s hair in the way that had proven relaxing to him before – both grateful to have each other for that moment, enjoying the company after the darkness of the night.

They got up an hour later, not quite rested, but unwilling to leave the care for their guest to Darcy. After all, alien-sitting had indeed not been part of her internship description.

“Darcy, are you –“

The sight that greeted Jane when she opened the door was one to behold: a tired-looking Darcy standing outside her own bedroom door, facing a very disgruntled Jay who had just opened the thing.

“Am I the only person in this house who likes beds better than the floor?” Darcy snarled. Jane couldn’t help but laugh.

“Blueberry pancakes?” she offered. Darcy lifted a brow.

“Only if you leave the cooking part to me. I’m not a fan of charcoal flavour.”

Jane playfully narrowed her eyes.

“Challenge accepted.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much, FosterTheory, for answering my grammar question! It's so relieving to know the story title doesn't come with a blaring mistake. :)


	7. Chapter 7

If there was something Jane would never grow tired to see, then it was Thor suspiciously – and as covertly as a person of his height could manage in an average supermarket – sniffing at a bag of carrots.

“Are these normally so low in flavour?” he whispered with an eye on the man refilling the fruit shelf some steps away from them.

“Sadly, yes,” Jane answered. “Organic tastes a bit better, but it’s still not the real thing. Unless you wanna try growing some carrots in flower pots, we should try to find a farmer’s market.”

Instead of asking her about what those things were, Thor said:

“Why would you do that to food?”

Jane couldn’t help but chuckle at the question.

“My talking.” She inspected a bag of organic carrots the way Darcy had instructed her, then placed it in their cart. “It’s cheaper and easier to do mass production. I don’t know much about that, Darcy can tell you more.”

He smiled at her:

“I do not believe that there is something you do not know.”

“There’s a lot I don’t know. That’s why I do research, to find out,” Jane bantered back. At the realisation of what she had said, she quickly turned to look for lemons. Better sour than – not thinking about science. So not thinking about science.

They hurried to get the rest of their groceries before the morning rush would set in. Jane kept stating that she didn’t want people flocking all over the place when they recognised Thor, and that this being the only supermarket in walking distance to the house meant there was a risk of Avengers fans starting to frequent the place. Nobody contradicted her.

“We’re back!” Jane shouted, quickly hopping over the doorstep before the six shopping bags Thor was carrying could catapult her straight into the living room. Not that anyone was actually living in it at the moment, as Darcy had kept her room, and Jay insisted on staying as far away from anything remotely soft – beds, sofas, even cushions – as if squishy foam was naturally possessed by demons. Given that the girl prayed every night, and every morning, too, that was not so unlikely a theory.

“Latin with a pretty ancient Siberian accent,” Natasha Romanoff had said when they had sent her a recording of Jay’s words. Well, that was something, even if it didn’t make much more sense than what they already knew: they’d picked up a Christian alien.

“Hello,” Jay said with an almost perfect h-sound when Jane and Thor went into the kitchen. She had learnt a basic vocabulary of several hundred words within days – slow, according to Thor. That remark had earned him a very stern gaze from Jane, only to make him add hurriedly that he worried about his cousin’s health. Whatever had happened to her during the past eight centuries, it had not been finishing school.

Speaking of school…

“How’s the reading going?” Jane asked, pointing at the text book Jay and Darcy sat bent over at the kitchen table.

“… not going very far today, that’s for sure,” Darcy said with a low growl in her voice.

With a careful glance at Jay, Jane said:

“Give her some time, it’s not easy if you’ve never learnt how to read.”

“Why not write as speak?” Jay mumbled. Jane, handing Thor a box of tea whose place in the upper cupboard she could not reach, put a hand on Jay’s bony shoulder.

“I know, right? So confusing.” She peeked at the textbook page currently in use. “Ew. Consonant clutter. Jane out.”

Darcy perfectly scowled at her.

“Not helpful, boss.”

“What? I barely scraped the dyslexia test when I was eight. Maybe you should try maths next, numbers are easier to remember. There’s only ten of them to begin with.”

That seemed enough of an explanation, for Darcy finished with a grumpy ”You’re supposed to encourage her”, followed by the determined closing of the book.

“What’s for lunch?” Jane asked, hopeful that it’d save her from being thrown at with tea cups.

“Stew,” Darcy said.

“What-stew?”

“Dunno, what did you buy?”

So much for the tea cups. Jane exchanged a hopeless gaze with Thor. With his height, he depended much more on decent meals than she did, and while Darcy’s cooking did pass the edibility hurdle, it wasn’t what Jane could call the highlight of her day.

“Maybe we should have pie instead…” she suggested.

“Can we not look up a recipe on your internet?” Thor said carefully. Jane bit back a laugh. It took an alien to remind them of their own technology.

“Sure, honey,” she said, brushing past him to where the water kettle waited to be switched on. “Why don’t you find us something?”

Thor left the kitchen in direction of the study, where Jane’s laptop rested when not in use – mostly as a lap warmer these days. Jane’s face reflected his knowing grin, or at least it did until she felt Darcy’s scowl burn the back of her ears.

“So my cooking’s not good enough for the royal highnesses now, is it?”

Jane wasn’t one to back down so quickly, not even from her scary intern:

“Oh, you want Thor to cook? That’s a good idea actually, he needs a hobby, and he does seem interested in foodstuffs.”

With a broad grin at Darcy, Jane cleared out the last shopping bag, placed some oranges in the fruit bowl – the special Christmas oranges had attracted both Thor’s and Jay’s liking – a new package of dishwasher tabs, and a small candle in a jar that looked a bit Christmassy. Thor had asked her about all the decorations on sale, so Jane had decided that the cold old house could do with some more cosy atmosphere. Teaching their alien housemates about Earth customs and all. Jane hadn’t mentioned that when it came to holidays, no matter from which culture, she was one of the least likely people to know their way around. Everyone could decorate, right? Well, she thought, thinking of a certain entirely golden palace, maybe she shouldn’t let Thor go full-scale on the Christmas decorations.

Under Darcy’s mildly astonished gaze, Jane placed the candle on the kitchen table and went in search of some matches. Before she was through the first drawer, Darcy’s now truly astonished shriek made her turn around.

Darcy kept staring back and forth between the little candle, flickering merrily, and Jay, huddled into the corner of the kitchen bench with the expression of a kitten who had no idea why everyone was so upset about the fluffy piece of art that had once been a boring roll of toilet paper. Apparently she had lighted the candle by magic. Jane managed a crooked smile.

“Thanks, Jay.”

Immediately Darcy’s scowl returned.

“Yeah, of course you’d be happy about having a fire demon in your house.”

“Don’t call her a demon!”

At this, Jay uttered a big sob.

“Great, now you’ve made her cry,” Jane snarled, climbing onto the bench and, at a loss what to do, awkwardly hugging Jay. As the skinny alien did not seem too happy about the gesture, Jane quickly let go – only to see Jay clutch a hand to her chest, as if in pain of heart.

“Yeah, now it’s my fault she’s crying,” Darcy gave back, turning to Jay. “Hey, can you do marshmallows? _What?_ ” she said, anticipating Jane’s disapproving gaze.

Before Jane could think of a sort of dessert that may be able to save their lunchtime mood, the sound of a small landslide made them all jump.

“Thor, you alright?”

When he stepped through the kitchen door a moment later, sparkling from head to toe, Jane couldn’t hold herself any longer. She burst out laughing.

“You store odd things at odd places,” he said.

Thor had found the glitter jar prank Darcy had built up for Jane in the study once and forgotten about, after Jane hadn’t felt like doing her intern the favour (and glitter for the rest of her life). Bless him.

Whatever Darcy would say, Jane certainly wasn’t going to help him scrub off the sparkle.

* * *

Jane had taken it upon her to clean up the study while the others made their daily delivery round to F. Street. Jay was slowly getting used to interacting with people, having been adopted as everyone’s favourite granddaughter (after all they had found her), which meant that Jane had a good lot of time before the rest of the household returned.

After the worst splotches of glitter and glue had been dealt with, the colourful paper sorted away and the scrapbooking accessories, knitting needles and crafting clay been put into their respective boxes, Jane switched on her laptop. She had started to manage her own e-mails again, after Darcy had established her mail account as the contact address for the Avengers. If she couldn’t do astrophysics, Jane would at least make sure that Thor could stay in touch with his friends. The cat videos Clint kept sending were definitely one reason as to why she wouldn’t create an account for Thor just yet.

Jane had skipped approximately twenty e-mails from different research institutes (“Work for us! We certainly won’t pay you!”), five from her mother (“Would you like me to tell Richard that you are living in shame with that _extraterrestrial – where does one turn off the italics on this impertinent device?_ ”), one from Erik that said he had found a new job as a professor (Jane wondered whether she should congratulate or commiserate, as Erik had always hated lecturing), and she was halfway through reading about Clint’s latest farm adventures (Two new lambs! So cute!) when Jane’s own little flock returned – with takeaway food, thanks Heaven.

They ate in the study, handing around boxes of Chinese food so Thor and Jay could try different dishes. Jane covertly made sure that enough of the boxes stayed with the two aliens as, although the aliens needed more food than average humans, she had lately gotten the feeling that Thor held back on food. Maybe it was for reasons of shyness, with all the scrawny humans around. Jay however, despite not being much taller than Jane, showed a very definite need for regular, substantial meals. Even Jane’s t-shirts looked too big on her, and she was always cold. They’d have to find her proper winter clothing before the weather turned.

“Do you want this?” Thor asked Jane for about the twelfth time that night, and she shook her head.

“Thanks, I’m full. You can finish that, if you like.”

“Darcy?”

“Nope, thanks. Still working on these noodles.”

Jay simply grunted through a mouthful of baked chicken and vegetables in sweet-and-sour sauce. When Jane looked up, Darcy winked at her. Jane gave her a little smile. They may not have been very experienced, but nobody could say that they didn’t make good alien-sitters.

After they had cleared away the empty takeaway boxes, Darcy said she’d go for a walk while Jane returned to her laptop. She had taken to the idea that looking at some of her old threads of work might help her get back to it.

To Jane’s surprise, Thor asked Jay to stay in the study with them. The two sat down on a pile of cushions in front of the heater, Thor having brought everyone a fresh cup of tea which Jane thanked him for from the bottom of her heart. She hadn’t had a cup since lunchtime.

While Jane’s eyes flew over paper after paper, one of her ears kept listening to Thor’s soft voice explaining the basics of mathematic theory to Jay. He tried his native language at first, but quickly switched back to English, realising that it was the more effective method. For some reason, it made Jane smile – how careful he was, staying close to practical examples of adding and subtracting, and before she knew, he was venturing into variables and equations, although none of that vocabulary showed up in his words. Jay kept solving most of the problems presented to her without having to write anything down. There was little wonder: Jane had never heard anyone explain algebra in such simplicity. It was a revelation.

“… and thus you can find out how to make the biggest box possible from the wood you have, so your cat will have a comfortable journey,” Thor finished another story. Jay looked at him sceptically:

“But not a comfortable leave. Cat won’t go in box.”

Thor laughed, Jay yawned, and Jane decided that there had been enough lessons today. When asked, Jay accepted the leave gracefully. Or rather, she got to her feet on wobbly legs, awkwardly tiptoed out of the room – then freezing into motionlessness on the doorstep, turning, doing another step back inside and wishing them both a good night. Jane could hear her run upstairs, pause, catch her breath, and tap over to the room she shared with Darcy. A moment later, soft music floated down to them. Darcy had found out that Jay had less trouble falling asleep if she could listen to a song or two. When Jane looked over at Thor, whose eyes had followed the sounds of Jay’s feet on the staircase, too, they both broke into a quiet chuckle.

Jane closed her last file, shut down the laptop and went over to sit down next to Thor on the living room floor. He adjusted the cushions and put an arm around her. Jane leant against him, snuggling into his t-shirt, her arms around his mid.

“I didn’t know you were a mathematician,” she murmured, feeling comfortably sleepy already. Tea. They needed tea.

“Those were just some simple things I remembered from the time we were taught our first lessons, hardly in order and certainly not presented with much expertise,” Thor replied with what could pass for a shy chuckle. Just for once, the memory of his brother did not seem to pain him quite as much as usual.

“Calculus? That’s what you start with? God, you people must be so brainy.”

At that, he finally did laugh.

“If only my old teachers could hear you.”

“Shut up. You’re smart,” Jane poked him with her finger. Teasingly she added: “And I bet you were all well-behaved and always did your homework properly in advance.”

“Oh, yes. Loki and I were beacons of model student behaviour, back in our days,” Thor grinned.

The happiness on his face none withstanding, he looked tired underneath. Everything in Jane screamed to stay where she was, and yet she moved herself to stand up.

“Do you want a cup of tea, or would you rather go to bed?”

With any other person, Jane wouldn’t have expressed that sentence in more than two words, maybe three, if she really liked said person. Thor smiled at her, took her hand, and together they pretended that Jane was pulling him onto his feet.

The kitchen wasn’t as cosy as their place on the study floor, which said everything about the house’s level of comfort, but Jane was too tired to walk the extra ten steps back with her cup. The snuggling worked to a certain degree on the kitchen bench, too, and her fatigue did the rest.

“Seems you have a little sister now,” Jane mumbled, her eyes on the small candle on the table. Thor stretched out a hand for the thing, delicately running the tip of his index finger over the rim of the glass containing the candle.

“ Littler only by some years. We are almost the same age. Sadly I am incapable of doing any magic, or I would be able to teach her more,” he answered quietly.

“Incapable? Is doing magic such a normal thing for your people?”

She felt his shrug like a small earthquake. So much for cuddling with giants.

“My parents are – were – both strong magicians. One would expect the talent to show.”

“These things tend to jump one generation,” Jane said before she realised what her words implied. Quickly she added:

“You and Jay look very much alike. You could really be siblings.”

Except for the little fact that Jay’s weight amounted to only about a fourth of his body mass, but who’d be picky? Maybe size jumped a generation, too.

“Our mothers were twin sisters.”

“She must have her father’s eyes then.”

Unless yellow was a normal eye colour for where Thor came from.

“That is… well, that is odd. But I do not remember much of her family. She was but a lass when she vanished, her parents – no, her father… he died in the dragon war. My aunt passed away earlier. Ah, this was such a long time ago, I hardly remember.”

So far, they had avoided asking Jay about anything concerning her past, as Darcy’s first try at the topic had ended in tears and what had looked like a panic attack with physical heartache. Jane could commiserate, although Jay’s reactions certainly were not the result of being stuffed into glittery organdie dresses by Lady Beatrice.

“By the way, my mother complains that we’re living in shame,” she grinned.

Thor looked startled at her.

“What does that mean?”

“In ancient times, it meant that a man and a woman shared a house without being married. But in present-day Mother-ish, it just means that I’m dating a guy she hasn’t met and put through a series of prehistoric tests.”

“Tests?”

“Lineage, fortune, looks, in that order, and then you have to wrestle her terriers. Ferocious beasts. Knee-high. Ugly hoarse barking.”

Thor said with a thoughtful face:

“I guess I qualify for the first two categories, and the terrible beasts I may just survive, but whether my features will suffice, that I worry about.”

Jane snorted with laughter at the joke.

“We’ll just keep repeating that you’re a crown prince.”

“Not anymore.”

“Mother doesn’t need to know that yet, does she?”

He nuzzled against her cheek, asking quietly:

“Was there a message from Steve?”

Jane bolted awake, as far as possible to her.

“No, sorry. Nothing for… two days now.”

“Three.”

That was odd indeed. Steve had taken centre position at the Avengers team, and his daily messages brought news and the certainty that things went on as usual. That there hadn’t been anything for days could not be good.

“Should we check?” Jane asked.

“I should –”

They both jumped up at the front door being thrown shut, followed by running steps through the hallway.

“The TV, turn on the news!” Darcy shouted.

They all ran into the living room, where the only TV set of the house presided. It was an old model, meaning that Jane could operate it without reinventing half the wiring.

“Is that… SHIELD?”

The images of gigantic airships filled the screen as the news reporter spoke of a large incident involving SHIELD and a so-far unknown group called HYDRA. There were blurry pictures of Steve in his Captain America gear, followed by images of Natasha in an Applying For First Captainess outfit and a man carrying a wing-like metal construction on his back.

Clint certainly had an odd way of prioritising cat videos.

“I’ll call Clint,” Jane said. He was the most likely member of the Avengers to not be busy and still know what was going on.

One phone call later, they knew two things for sure: the whole rhubarb had been eaten before anyone had known it had even started, and that Nick Fury was dead. Thor looked dumbstruck at the news.

“I’m sorry,” Darcy said, sensing his mood before Jane had so much as thought about it. She hated that slowness of her brain.

Thor shook his head.

“I should have been there. Should have saved him.”

“Even if you had known what was going on, you’d never have been there in time. He’d have called you if there had been something to do,” Jane tried, awkwardly patting his arm. She felt terrible about it, after all Fury had seemed a decent guy. If only there had been a way to consolidate Thor… one that didn’t make him feel even worse. Jane knew of her talent in that direction. Why hadn’t that jumped a generation? Her mother was a master in this discipline. Stupid genetics.

She was kicked out of her musings by something pounding heavily against the front door.

“I’ll go.”

Jane was halfway down the hallway when everything happened at once: something very loud hit the front wall, causing some paint to peel off; three hundred pounds of alien smashed into Jane, pushing her behind a doorframe; a definitely moving Nick Fury did a not particularly graceful stomach-landing on their hallway floor through the freshly opened door, and a shadow darted past them all, out into the street, before Thor could close the door again.

“Shit! What –“

“Jay!”

Jane jumped over Fury, ignoring the shouts to stop. She could see Jay fly around a dark corner, the noise of heavy steps and confused yelling following her, so Jane did not waste any energy on ducking. A second later she saw Thor running next down the pavement on the other side of the street, hammer in hand, wildly gesturing at her to return at once and bring her ridiculous butt into safety like any decent superhero would have done.

Except he didn’t, never had and never would, and that was why she loved him.

He quickly pointed at the bystreet he wanted to take, Jane signing that she had understood. A moment later, they both vanished in the darkness.

As she ran, Jane cursed herself for her recklessness which had once more driven her head-first into certain mess.

Except she didn’t, because this was just what she had needed since Malekith had started to become a frequent visitor on her top ten of faces she did decidedly not need to do mass commercials in her dreams.

The sounds of a helicopter broke through the nightly cacophony, and it came closer, rapidly. Jane couldn’t see it, but through the sound and the blinking reflected by walls here and there, she could make out approximately where it stood. Close, damn close. Except –

There was a metallic shriek, and then a deafening crash. Flames shot up, or maybe they already had before. Jane hurried on, getting out the last of her strength to run those last leaps.

She couldn’t see Thor, but through their numerous visits to F. Street, Jane knew approximately which way he’d take. She tried to run a loop, meeting him from the other side of where she guessed Jay to be.

The noises had almost stopped when Thor appeared on the other side of a small parking lot, bearing traces of the helicopter and the odd fire.

“Did you see who did this?” he asked with a lowered voice, panting after their zigzagging through several blocks.

“I thought you did…”

“I did not. Have you found her?”

“No, this way,” Jane replied without slowing down. Together they went down a narrow pathway between two houses, and –

“Gotcha!”

Jay sat huddled over in the darkest corner possible, almost indistinguishable from the dark if it hadn’t been for her white t-shirt. There were no fires here.

“Jay, are you alright?” Jane asked hurriedly. Only then did her eyes fall on three other shapes in the dark. Two wore black. The third…

“I couldn’t save her,” Jay wailed.

“Is that Mrs Blonski?”

As usual, Thor was quicker. He scooped up the old woman in his arms and hurried back up the street, not waiting for Jane or Jay. The former hoisted the latter onto her feet – the girl weighed nothing – and together they stumbled back to the House of Terrible Furniture.

The front door stood open, and as soon as they appeared, Fury peeked out from behind the doorframe.

“Who –“

“Not your business!” Jane barked. She could hear new footsteps coming closer, more than before. Thor stopped in front of the house, turning back to her. Jane nodded. Understood.

“Darcy, hurry!”

“Thought you’d never ask, boss,” the intern shouted, giving Nick Fury a push and closing the door behind her. Jane looked up at the night sky, where a spiral of flashing clouds was forming.

“You’re not supposed to lock, Darcy!”

“Tell insurance!”

They were gone before the first windows shattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter obviously describes the plotline of the second "Captain America" movie, just in case that wasn't clear. ;) The timeline in the movies is a little different, but I had to tweak that in order to make it fit into this storyline.
> 
> Next chapter will be a bit dramatic, I'm afraid - Writing comedy is hard! - as some presumably lost characters return.


	8. Chapter 8

Time. Seemingly endless to him, forever running for the humans. When he had just believed to be free, for some time, for a suitably endless time…

Of course Thor had been bound to return one day, and of course the air-head would need a place to run to when he had brought himself into more than he could handle again. That it only took him the blink of an eye should not have surprised anybody, given how close to the humans the oaf kept presenting himself.

Loki turned on his heel and left the balcony that led to his private chambers. At least the fool had brought him a gift.

* * *

“Ho-ly moo toffee tap-dancing on a gherkin patch,” was Darcy’s first comment. The intern never disappointed.

“What’s moo toffee?” Jane asked, but nobody paid attention to her.

They stood in the great golden observatory, still a little unhinged by having passed time and space between two worlds normally as close as soap opera to realism. Two guards hurried toward Thor, but instead of charging, they bowed respectfully and took the silently groaning Mrs Blonski out of his arms.

“The healers await her,” the golden-horned gatekeeper said. Jane couldn’t help herself: as cool as the helmet looked, it kept reminding her of a stag beetle. Moo.

While the two guards and their fragile patient swiftly rode over the bridge, Thor turned to the gatekeeper:

“And are we awaited as well?”

“I believe you are,” was the solemn answer.

“Thank you, Heimdall,” Thor said. He looked back at Jay. “Can you walk?” She nodded.

When they were outside on the bridge, Fury quickened his pace to walk next to Thor. Jane, close behind them together with Darcy and Jay, felt her exhaustion returning with the gallantry of a bridge troll, and with the same politeness she shoved it back to from wherever it had come.

“I guess I owe you for this,” Fury said with what was almost a smile.

Thor did not look at him, his attention fully focussed on the bridge and the gates beyond.

“You don’t,” he said, sounding too human for Jane’s taste. “It is good to know you well.”

Fury pointed at the palace, looming at the horizon.

“Is that where we’re going?”

“I’m afraid it is.”

Jane shivered, and not just because of the terrible draught on the bridge, or because her body systems had decided to call it a night. Covertly she snarled at Darcy:

“Forget about moo toffee, tonight’s gonna end in goat disco.”

* * *

Jane sat on the railing of a large terrace, so high above ground that she could see some fog drifting through the alleys and courts underneath. Her feet dangled above nothing but countless leagues of air, and yet she felt as safe as anyone could ever have been, for Thor stood behind her. She could feel his chest against her back, and his arms lay around her middle, securing her in her seat.

“There are seven moons, but at this time of the year you should only be able to see three of them,” he said.

“Pity. How do they influence gravitation, do you have seven sorts of tides?”

“Oh, no such thing, we’re clearly too well-behaved here,” he chuckled. Jane giggled, trying to elbow him, but Thor evaded the poke and instead tickled her side a little. Jane sincerely thanked whoever had given her a lover with such strong arms, for with any other partner, the tickling could have gifted her with a lovely free flight – downwards.

Thor adjusted his grip on her, making it even stronger and more comfortable, and leaning into it, Jane smiled at him:

“Your hugs are great.”

“You’re very nice to hug.”

“Really?” she arched a brow. “Darcy always says that living with me is like trying to hug a cactus. They’re those spiky plants from the desert.”

“Does she?”

He pulled her back onto the terrace, Jane a little wobbly on her feet, but somehow disappointed – at least until Thor cupped her face with one hand and smoothed down her wind-tossed hair with the other.

“There, no more spikes,” he said with a sly smile.

“You!” Jane grinned back, doing a little hop to sling her arms around his neck. He caught her easily, holding her so their faces were on a line, their foreheads and noses touching. The moment deepened…

“Gosh, the spa in this place is _amazebleeps_!"

Through the open doors of the terrace, Jane saw Darcy enter the suite.

“I’ve just gotten an _hour’s_ worth of massages, and the baths – am I interrupting anything important?” the intern said, now standing in the doorway to the terrace.

Jane sighed. “Not at all,” she said, sinking to the ground. She didn’t have to look up at Thor to feel his disappointment. “And – you look – odd.”

“Thank you,” Darcy grinned, turning so they could get a good look at her. She wore a golden dress – a bit too tight for Jane’s taste, but she hardly counted as a fashion entrepreneur – with matching jewellery, and her skin and hair had a most peculiar sparkle to them. It all clashed wonderfully with Darcy’s most prominent glasses of black plastic.

“You look beautiful,” Thor said, saving the day once more. How fortunate that at least one person with manners was present.

Darcy winked, turning on the spot a little more to watch the flow of her dress. “Why haven’t you changed?” she asked.

Jane, at a loss, said: “Were we supposed to?”

She looked up at Thor. His eyes were clouded with seriousness.

Their arrival had been as odd as the situation that set it off: at the gates of the palace, a courtier had greeted them and announced that their quarters had been prepared. That had been all. No word from the king, no audience. Jane had asked for Jay to be sent to the healers, which two servants had immediately taken into their capable hands (or feet, given the ridiculous size of the place). After that, Thor had shown her to his rooms. Nobody had disagreed.

Jane certainly did not mind sharing a place with him this time, instead of living in a walk-in closet several miles from wherever he’d been, and her curiousness about a prince’s – _her_ prince’s – old home had prevailed for a while, but now the dread returned. Something wasn’t the way it should be.

“So,” Darcy interrupted Jane’s mental best-of tour of anguish, “are we having dinner?”

She pointed at a table in the reception room behind them, laden lavishly with food and several decanters of what Jane guessed to be rotten juice. Why did nobody ever serve actual juice? Shame about the nice grapes, or whatever they used here. Probably something that sparkled from the outside as much as in a glass.

“Thor?” a voice asked. “You’re back!”

They turned around to where Sif stood in the half-opened door, visibly torn between the urge to keep up her poise, and running to her friend to hug him into flute shape.

“Is it a local custom to never knock?” Jane said through the corner of her mouth. Thor chuckled, leaving her side to greet his old friend. Before he could so much as approach her though, Sif reached behind her, opening the door fully.

“Oh, and I found this one wandering through the corridors.”

Nick Fury arched a brow at Thor.

“I’ve been through half the palace and the souvenir shop before your chambermaid here picked me up. My Starbucks routine in the morning isn’t as easy,” he said.

“Call me a chambermaid once more, and we can go through _my_ morning routine,” Sif snarled through gritted teeth.

Grinning, Thor commented: “Let me know when you two plan to do so, for I would not want to miss such a spectacle in the world. All is well, Sif, Nick Fury is a friend and mentor of mine. Nick, this is the Lady Sif, one of my oldest friends.”

“Certainly not _the_ oldest,” Sif snarled, but the mere hint of a well-kept-back smile played around the corners of her lips.

“That I can see,” Nick Fury replied, gallantly kissing the back of the Lady’s hand. Jane and Darcy exchanged an impressed gaze.

At Thor’s invitation, they all sat down for refreshments. Jane kept glancing at Thor. Despite wearing nothing more posh than his sleeping t-shirt, comfortable pants and a pair of trainers, he looked quite the prince he was. All of a sudden she felt much better for not having dressed any differently. Team t-shirt, she thought, which was probably not something she should have on a t-shirt.

While they ate, Nick told them about his flight from some HYDRA dogs who had dug him up in France.

“I didn’t know where else to go,” he finished his story on an unexpectedly sombre line.

“So… SHIELD’s gone?” Darcy asked.

“If it isn’t, then it goes on without me,” he said. “Coulson’s team should be alright though.”

“Phil Coulson is alive?” Thor asked. Jane interrupted:

“Why, has he ever not been?”

“That’s a long story, but yes.” Fury knocked back a hearty gulp of what was probably wine before he said: “What was that thing you released on my entourage there tonight? Any more of those ice monsters? ‘Cause last time we –“

“That was my cousin.”

“Oh. Bit small for –“

“We’re working on that,” Jane finished before the tension could snap into anyone’s face. Then another thought occurred to her:

“Come to speak of her, has anyone seen Jay?”

* * *

Loki leant back in his chair, rather pleased with the sight presented to him.

“This style is rather becoming to you,” he sat flatly, making sure to look more interested in the exquisite wine filling his goblet than the addressee of his words.

In front of him, several maids presented the outcome of their thankless task of turning a scrawny little beast into an almost presentable lady of court – not that it mattered. Not that the creature would ever find itself in such a position.

The dress was his design, a rather ingenious blend of the latest fashion worn by the ladies of court and the royal tradition of ceremonial armour, if Loki could say so of his own works. She was so thin, this creature, that the many layers of metal, cloth and leather, weaving into and around each other, only served to make her appear a little more substantial – an effect Loki himself used, but he preferred to keep this from the open. The dull black and gold gave his monstrous guest a silhouette, but kept her far enough in the background, and the long, narrow skirts and cape would do their work to make her appear taller. There was little to be done about her matchstick-short hair, but the maids had done some good work in making it appear as if long hair had been wrapped and plaited around the creature’s head. For now, it would suffice.

Loki waved away the servants. His lips curled in amusement at the thought that they would take the gossip about the old king receiving a stranger in his private chambers through the whole palace. Keeping up the disguise took so much of his strength most of the time that he had to have little jests such as this one.

“It is kind of you to receive me,” the creature said, “cousin Loki.”

He froze in his seat.

“How –“

“I smell Frost Giant.”

The metaphorical white-glowing ice of rage shot through his heart, and real ice was about to form around his hand when he noticed something: the creature’s claws were on fire – and she smirked.

“And I see a dragon,” he growled.

He shed the illusion he had kept up for so long, turning back into his real self – black mane longer than ever, his best suit of armour and cape in perfect state of maintenance. He did mean to impress. Always.

His cousin’s eyes wandered over him, their disturbingly yellow colour thankfully swallowed by the damp gold of her attire. He had chosen well.

“So you remember?” Loki asked, stepping down from the pedestal of his chair and gallantly taking the creature’s hand. She was very obviously not used to elegant behaviour, but adapted quickly enough. He led her over to a group of settees, where refreshments had been arranged.

“I remember meeting you and cousin Thor when we were children.”

To Loki’s chagrin, she spoke the language many of the humans preferred, and even that not quite to perfection. At least she did not throw herself at the food, as he had feared, but waited until invited before she took a delicate bite – and no more. Maybe there was some breeding left in her, after all. He would have to find out.

“It was your only visit here,” Loki replied. He remembered well. Those eyes had scared – had left their impression on him.

He offered her a goblet of wine, a formidable vintage he had chosen himself, and she lifted her hand to take it, but Loki was quicker. He grasped the creature’s wrist. To his mild surprise, she did not resist.

Thin lines crawled around the meagre arm, thickening into knotted patterns just above her hands. In the light of three moons, they glistened silvery.

“Moonlines,” he whispered. Traces of old magic only visible under the reflected light of a star. The creature had been cursed, and not just once, a long time ago, with spells so ancient and strong that their very existence was doubted by magicians of all worlds. “Did the dragon king cast those? After he had stolen you from your parents’ palace?”

The bitter smile on her face did not improve her lack of beauty when she said:

“No. Other king.”

Loki leant back, letting go of her hand. That was a strange bit of news indeed, but it fit into the story. He had never seen his cousin except for that one occasion. There had been rumours about the princess not being her father’s true child, and from the creature’s magic he had sensed that she was half monster herself. Now it was confirmed: the crown princess of Ria had not been the king’s daughter, but a dragon’s.

On Ria, the line of heritage ran through female inheritance, from mother to daughter, thus leaving the question of fatherhood obsolete. This had apparently not stopped the king, may his name be forgotten, to be cautious about the dragon spawn. Maybe not his most foolish choice, of all the things Loki had read about the man.

“After Mother’s death,” the creature continued. “Your mother saved me. She said I was heir. She offered raise me here, but my father not agree. I heard… she is dead, too?”

Taken aback, Loki’s words came out involuntarily soft when he replied:

“Yes.”

His long loneliness must have turned him soft. There was no other explanation as to why he led the creature down to the gardens, where a statue of the queen had been erected during her lifetime. Uncharacteristically small and formed out of white marble instead of gold-plated stone, it had become a place of reverence for Queen Frigga’s many faithful subjects. Loki rarely came here, and if he did, then only in deepest night, when the garden was closed for the public. In this place, it became more difficult to keep up his disguise.

In a gleam of magic, a rose blossom appeared on his palm. He handed it to the creature, and without asking she placed it at the feet of the statue, where countless other flowers had been left. At least that she had learnt. When she rose, Loki made sure not to notice the tears on her face.

They wandered back through the palace’s dark corridors when the creature asked:

“Where is your father?”

“He is not my father.”

“But where is he?”

Loki made sure a particularly thick set of doors had closed behind them when he replied:

“He fell into an endless sleep. It is unlikely that he will wake up. With my brother gone and I in disgrace, there was nobody to take the crown.”

Why was he telling this abomination the truth, or as much of the truth as anyone would care to know? He must be very lonely indeed.

“I will show you.”

They climbed down a long, narrow corridor, one that held a special place in his memory. It ended in a long flight of rooms to each side of the walkway, each brightly lit, yet completely empty.

“What is this?” the creature asked.

“Look closer, if you like,” he smiled.

The creature stepped into one of the chambers – and Loki cast the spell that activated the golden wall of magic trapping her inside.

“I hope you do not mind if I leave you my old quarters, cousin,” he snarled when he walked out of the dungeons.

* * *

Darcy was halfway through having herself coiffed by none other than the Lady Sif herself, who had displayed much more knowledge about these things during the last thirty minutes than anyone had ever thought her capable of, when she noticed Jane’s absent glance.

“Boss?” she asked, making Jane start. “Are you okay?”

Jane tried to reply, but all her thoughts had turned into bubblegum. Lemon flavour. Why lemon flavour?

“I need to…”

Go. She needed to go.

“Something’s here. It feels like the Aether – except it’s like a lemon.”

All thoughts of sleep forgotten, all worries whether her words had made any sense discarded, Jane jumped to her feet and ran out of the room. She hardly heard the others following her, and it didn’t matter. Bubblegum. She wanted bubblegum.

The vast halls vanished around her, huge doors flying open as if sensing her determination, and good on them. Jane had no time to argue with stubborn decorations.

She was deep inside the palace when she noticed Thor next to her.

“Jane!” he shouted, but she did not stop. She did not stop until they turned around a corner – and ran into something very sparkly, and very caped.

“ _Loki!_ What the –“

Having the advantage of being very short and not wearing an assortment of Christmas bling, Jane was on her feet much quicker than the alien. She could sense Thor bouncing between the walls behind her, but stretched out an arm to keep him back. She needed to talk to Loki before the two brothers could clear up their differences in their trademark gentlemen way.

“Hello, Jane,” the second prince smirked.

“Where’s Jay?”

He cocked his head.

“Pardon?”

“Our cousin!” Thor roared. As it seemed, he took the news that his brother was still alive quite well, all things considered.

“You mean Jormungand?”

The name was met with shocked silence. Jane turned to look at Thor.

“In the stories, it says that Jormungand brings the end of the world…”

“Silly yarn the humans spun,” snarled Loki. It was too much for Thor.

“You fool!” he yelled. “You – you – you brought her to the heart of our world! Did you not _think_? Do you ever _use_ that head you’re so proud of? She has an _Infinity Gem_!”

“How could I –“ Loki started, but nobody listened to him anymore. Thor, Sif and the three humans had already run into the dungeons.

A bright yellow light blinded them. Hardly seeing anything in the gleam, Jane went on until she found its centre: Jay.

The woman had changed. Although still humanoid, dark scales covered her now. Long horns grew from her brow, black talons clawed the wall behind her, crowned by a pair of majestic wings. A long lizard tail lashed back and forth, but Jane kept out of its reach. Despite the yellow light that had broken forth from Jay’s chest, where her heart sat, the glow of her eyes had not diminished.

“Jay?”

“It has been prophesied,” the poor thing rasped.

“No, cousin, please. Whatever it is – please come back with us.”

Darcy pushed Thor aside.

“Jay, sweetie, don’t do that to me, okay? IPod buddies forever, remember?”

“I’m sorry… Darcy, I am sorry… I cannot – the Devil’s spawn brings the end of the world…”

\- which was when Jane became aware of the calling she had and still felt. The calling that had given her the energy to run through a gigantic alien palace without so much as breaking out in a sweat. The energy that had pushed open gigantic alien doors for her without needing so much as the beat of an eyelash.

“Jay, please listen to me. I know what you feel, what that light inside you is trying to make you do. But that’s not you, and you don’t have to listen to it. I know because I once had something like that light, too. It’s hard, but you have to try!”

She wasn’t sure if Jay had so much as heard her words. For a moment, nothing happened – and then Jay lifted her head, staring at something behind them. Blinded by yet another light, Jane could not see what it was, but she heard steps on the stone floor.

“Mother,” Jay gasped.

“Please, child,” a warm voice said. Jane knew it, and suddenly she also remembered to whom it belonged. “Please come back to us,” Queen Frigga said.

“Jay, it’s alright. You don’t need that light, and without you, it can’t do anything. You can stop it, if you want,” Jane said with growing despair. She could feel the power of the yellow light increasing. They didn’t have much time. “Jay, only you can do this.” This was no good. She knew this terrible light, she could feel it in her own brain, it was what had given her the power to push open the doors… maybe that was the key. “You must stop it. _Now_.”

Jane focussed every bit of grip she could muster on the centre of that strangely familiar yellow light – and suddenly she felt Jay’s gaze on herself.

Out of strength, Jane sank to her knees, but she still saw how Jay’s hand wandered to her heart, vanishing in the glow. Jane felt the terrible light around her diminish, and in the sudden lack of brightness, heard how something small and solid hollered over the floor. Sif dove for it. A tall, long-robed shape caught Jay when she fell.

Jane felt strong arms around herself. She blinked up at Thor’s face.

“Saved the world. Must be Tuesday again.”

He did not reply, just hugged her tightly. Not a bad reward, although Jane wouldn’t have said no to a cookie either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you read my previous story, "Children of a Fleeting World", you already know the dragon concept, and obviously that's where it's from, except completely different (ahem). Quite at the beginning of developing that story, I had an idea for a sequel to the "Thor" movies including the character of "Jay" who was the very, very evil villain of that version. I discarded that story for this one, but some of Jay's story arc still felt useful for developing the other characters, so here it is... with a rather different character, so she'd fit in with the concept of this narrative. Theme song for her is "Yellow Flicker Beat", at least I think that's what it was called...
> 
> Also, in an early version of this chapter, Darcy combined her precious evening dress with one of her woollen hats. That got scrapped for Thor lounging around his old home in an old human t-shirt. He's the subtle humour type.
> 
> That nonewithstanding, Loki should try his hand at fashion design. ~~And if just for the laughs~~.


	9. Chapter 9

All she wanted was a cookie. Preferably a cookie that could take her terrible headache away.

“… Jane?”

“Cookie,” she rasped. Ouch. Throat as dry as the first-year lecture on experimental physics.

She lay in something that was definitely an extraterrestrial bed, which was better than the piece of nightmarish furniture in her mother’s house, but not much of an improvement – one day she’d show Thor what a trampoline was. Just to check if his people knew the technology of bouncing.

Thor helped her sit up and drink a little… whatever it was, it tasted light and sweet. To Jane’s great chagrin, she had to admit that it made her headache and the nausea in its wake disappear almost immediately. Was it okay if she pretended to be sick a little longer, just so Thor would take care of her…?

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Better,” Jane said, all her plans of pretence melting away at a look into Thor’s notorious puppy eyes.

“Fate be thanked,” he breathed, his arm still around her, their foreheads touching. Jane closed her eyes, and relaxing into his embrace, she… heard one of Darcy’s unmistakable snores.

Jane looked up, taking in their quarters for the first time. Night seemed to have fallen, or at least it was dark, with no more than a fireplace illuminating the room – big enough to host a cow stable, but that was alien architecture for you. There was little else in it except for two considerably narrow beds, in one of which Jay slept, to Jane’s relief – and sitting next to it, head sunk onto her arms, Darcy kept pronouncing clusters of the letter z.

So that’s what an intergalactic hospital room looked like.

“How’s Jay?” Jane asked as quietly as she could, which didn’t take much effort. She did feel better, but was about as energised as all the nameless plush bunnies that had never made it to the end of the battery ad.

“She has not woken yet.”

Neither had Darcy, apparently. At least Jane’s intern was getting a good night’s sleep.

“But – what about Loki, and your –“

“Jane, you need to rest.”

When Jane looked back to Thor, she noticed that the same counted for him. It might have been the flickering fire, but Jane was sure to see the hint of shadows under Thor’s eyes. His face seemed narrower, his gaze less sharp than usual. Despite all Lokis and Darkelves, Jane had never seen him look like total crap, but now was quite close.

Oh. Of course. Lokis and Darkelves. Losing half one’s family could bring a man to his knees, but to find out that it had been a lie? Not cool.

Jane lifted a hand to Thor’s face, softly caressing his cheek.

“Can’t we go somewhere else?” she whispered.

“Jane, the healers, you’re not –“

She put a finger on his lips.

“Just somewhere more comfortable. This bed is almost as hard as the one in my mother’s house.”

He laughed quietly at the remark.

“It is soft enough, you’re just too light to sink in.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Not at all.”

Apparently finding her recovered enough, Thor hoisted Jane into his arms, wrapped her into her thick, fluffy blanket, and carried her out onto a small terrace. There was a roof above, and a small sort of sofa, which in Earth terms meant that it felt more spacious than a standard double bed.

In the gentle summer breeze, blankets would hardly have been necessary, but Jane didn’t complain when Thor lay down with her, her head resting on his chest. With her last bit of strength before she fell into a dreamless sleep again, she wriggled up so she could caress Thor’s face just a little longer.

Poor dude could do with a bit of rest. They all could.

* * *

One obvious sign that Jane felt better was that she had started to boss people around again – which made Darcy feel a lot better, too. Only about an hour before, when Nick had come to announce that he was accompanying Ms Blonski back to Earth, Jane had decided that her intern needed some fresh air and sent Darcy to see the two out.

“Do you really wanna go already?” she asked Nick when they stood inside the observatory. “You don’t get a holiday on Glitter Island that often. Although the fashion these guys like can be a bit intimidating – no offence, you look hot,” Darcy added in direction of the gatekeeper. Heimdall gave her a cheeky smile, then gently took frail Ms Blonski’s arm to guide her to the other end of the observatory.

“It’s better she returns as soon as possible,” Nick said, nodding at their patient. “And she can’t go alone.”

“Yeah…”

“I’ll be around,” Nick said before he went to where the old woman waited. Darcy smiled at the sight of Nick offering his arm, and Ms Blonski happily hooking hers around it.

“You are a good boy, Peter, and you have always been my favourite nephew,” she said. Nick replied with a laugh, patting the old woman’s hand, before the rainbow tunnel magicked them both to the other end of the universe.

“So,” Darcy said, “just to make things clear – you see everything that goes on? Everywhere?”

“Normally,” the terribly tall, terribly impressive gatekeeper replied with an extra sparkle in his eyes. “I keep watch over nine worlds.”

“Normally?” This was interesting.

“There is always magic.”

She shouldn’t have asked. But she did.

“So that’s how Loki got through with his charade? Or did you know?”

To Darcy’s surprise, Heimdall looked at his feet. Handsome, cool and shy? If this guy was still single, the universe had more sad a humour than Darcy had always suspected.

“I knew. We had an agreement. It was… I thought it for the better. Loki is king now, or he will be after his official coronation.”

He looked so solemn, Darcy couldn’t help but take the alien’s hand and drag him out of the gloomy observatory. They must have looked so weird, she thought: the tall, dark, downright gorgeous gatekeeper, and she, a short, pudgy human the colour of disgruntled camembert. For some reason though, she felt that he didn’t mind the gesture. She made a mental note of finding out if she could invite him on a café latte one day, because sure as hell nobody had ever done that – at least not during the last five hundred years.

“Hey,” she said, “if you ever need a break, you know where to find me.”

Literally.

* * *

During her long and extensive research of varying extraterrestrial cultures, Jane had come to the conclusion that there were indeed a lot of parallels between all those aliens and the common human setting – one of them being the total insufferableness of waiting areas, even if they were gold-plated and came with excellent room service.

Although still wobbly on her legs like an elephant during the season of very ripe fruit, Jane had been allowed to leave the healers’ care as of this morning. There were no such good news for Jay, alas. She was still very weak, hardly accepted any food, and the only thing she had uttered so far was a feeble crying.

It was Loki, of all people, who had told them of Jay’s tragic inheritance and upbringing. No wonder that she was so scrawny. After her mother’s early death, Jay had known no loving family, no warm home, Sunday lunches or even so much as her own pillow. It was lucky that they had found her, and that Queen Frigga had been able to get through to Jay before the worst could happen.

These were two things Jane hadn’t quite understood yet: that apparently both the queen and Loki had only faked their kicking-the-golden-bucket, and that the strange yellow light Jane had seen had come from a gem stone Jay had carried inside herself – literally. The stone resembled the Aether, including its weird and very unhealthy programming. With a willpower and strength Jane could hardly imagine, the half-dragon had managed to pull out the stone, saving them all from the fate of a rather ugly grill party. Jane had always had an indistinct dislike for barbecues.

Her stomach growled at the thought, and with the snacks thoughtfully provided for her – and a herd of dinosaurs, judging by the amount of foodstuffs prepared – Jane didn’t plan to leave the cook disappointed. Alas, as always, just when she had stuffed some outrageously delicious bread into her mouth, a maid appeared.

“My Lady, her majesty sends for you.”

Jane tried to mumble her reply and jumped onto her feet, almost tripping over the seams of her ridiculously wide, flowing, elegant court robe which sadly didn’t add any elegance to Jane. Doing her best to empty her mouth, she tiptoed after the much taller maid, breaking into a run every five steps because certain aliens couldn’t walk a bit slower when people with shorter legs were with them.

Fortunately the throne room was empty, or else Jane would have made sure to stumble over her own feet in front of absolutely every important nobleperson of the planetoid. One couldn’t miss such a chance.

“Jane! Come here, child,” Queen Frigga greeted her, abandoning all formalities and making Jane feel even more awkward in her silly dress. At least that hadn’t changed.

She went over to the throne, in front of which stood the queen and her sons. Both Thor and Loki were dressed in their princely bling, and with their tall, elegant queen between them, Jane knew once again why she’d been sitting at the no-date-table, back at her prom. Quickly she wiped a breadcrumb from her mouth. Not embarrassing at all. Except very much. Not as embarrassing as her prom dress, beige of all things, but bad enough. Oh God. The queen held out her hands for her.

Suddenly unable to remember how to walk, Jane closed the distance between her and the throne platform and, visibly shivering, put her hands into Queen Frigga’s. New statistics: definitely more embarrassing than the Dress of Awkward Beige.

“I am relieved to see you better. We were all quite worried,” the queen said.

“Uh… thank you, it’s good to see you… it’s good to see you, too,” Jane brought out with the courtly finesse of a sleepy rhinoceros.

Queen Frigga laughed, finally letting go of Jane’s hands. Jane, suddenly feeling quite in the wrong spot, took three covert steps back to stand next to Thor – or what she thought of as covert. With her two left feet, her little performance was likely to resemble a bad crab impression.

“I am sorry for calling you so shortly after your recovery, Jane, but you will have questions,” Queen Frigga said. “It will not take long, but if you would prefer to sit down…?”

Jane shook her head. She tried to take Thor’s hand. When he didn’t respond, she looked up at him – of all her stupid ideas today, definitely the worst, and that included remembering how she had gone home after prom all alone and crying.

His gaze was fixated on his mother, the queen, but although they stood no more than five foot apart from each other, it was as if there were a wall of that thickness between them. Jane clenched her teeth and took his hand. Thor blinked, as if waking from a daydream, and looked down at her with what could count for surprise. Jane tried to smile, giving his hand a little squeeze.

“I apologise for the inconvenient scene you had to witness, Jane,” Queen Frigga said, doubtlessly referring to her little dance with Malekith – and how it had ended. “It was not my intention to frighten you. Alas…” She looked at her sons. “I am afraid it could not be avoided.”

Not understanding at all, Jane gave a small nod of understanding. Maybe she didn’t want to hear any more. Not from millennia-old, scary aliens whose minds clearly worked on higher levels than hers. She still hadn’t got that cookie.

“I am, however, very glad to see that you no longer carry the Aether.”

“So am I, uh, your majesty,” Jane managed to say. Not bad, was it? Maybe she was getting the hang of this.

“What we call the Aether, as well as the Tesseract and two so far unknown stones just discovered, are four amongst six similar entities known to us as the Infinity Gems.” Jane felt Loki shift on his feet, but she kept staring at Queen Frigga. “Once assembled, these six gems contain the strongest magic imaginable to us. That you carried one, and without dissolving in its spell…” The queen’s eyes flickered in Loki’s direction. “… is unprecedented.”

She looked back at Jane, finishing her little speech:

“We can but admire and thank you, Jane Foster. Without your strength, this world would be no more.”

_Twice_ , Jane added in her head. Audibly she replied:

“Uh… thanks?”

Maybe not getting the hang of it after all.

“Mother, Jane will be tired,” Thor’s voice interrupted them. She could have kissed him, except it was a little embarrassing, in front of his mother and all. Loki’s presence Jane did not mind much. She was sure their flirting would annoy the heck out of him. Good idea.

“Of course, please excuse my thoughtlessness,” Queen Frigga said. The polite smile fell from her face when she looked at Thor. “Your decision stays unchanged?”

“It does,” he said.

“And there is nothing to be done about it? Not even if Jane –“

“No, Mother. There is nothing to be done.”

Jane did not dare to breathe. She had never heard Thor speaking so coldly into anyone’s face. It terrified her, more than anything she had seen or heard in her life.

“And the throne?” Queen Frigga asked, an edge to her voice that didn’t quite improve Jane’s fluff levels.

“Well. You have Loki.”

Loki turned his head sharply, staring at Thor with a fine blend of horror and butthurt.

“No, brother, you won’t – I won’t –“

“Is that not what you wanted? The throne? You have it now.”

Jane wondered if Loki would throw himself onto the floor, seven foot of alien all a-kicking and a-whining. Sadly, he didn’t do her the favour.

“I told you, all I ever wanted was to be considered worthy of the position, just as you were!”

“And I told you that I considered you to be so, much more than myself, in our last talk – when you pretended to be Father,” Thor snapped back. Before his brother could reply, he turned to Queen Frigga. “Mother, if you will excuse us… I have to see Jane back home.”

With those words, Thor put an arm around her and, without waiting for a reply, stomped out of the throne room. This time Jane broke into an actual run. The people who had conceptualised this palace must have been jogging freaks.

Outside, Thor stopped, waiting for Jane to catch her breath.

“I am sorry,” he said, and there was something strange in his voice, an urge Jane couldn’t quite interpret.

“It’s – okay, I – just a moment,” she gasped. Then she looked up at Thor’s face, and gasped again. “Oh God, are you okay?”

Instead of replying, he lifted Jane up onto the broad edge of a pond, their eyes finally on one level. He gazed at her intently, their faces almost touching. Jane felt breathless, but not because of her little run. Then, finally, he kissed her.

It was a desperate kiss, and it would never rank particularly high among romantic moments of the century, but it was a necessary kiss. It hurt, because Jane did not want Thor to hurt so much, and because she didn’t know what to do about it. And it felt good, because if there was a way to get rid of that pain, then kissing certainly wasn’t the worst choice.

“Jane,” Thor said, their lips no longer touching, but their arms still slung around each other.

“Yes?”

“Would you – may – may I stay with you?”

She blinked, not quite sure she had heard correctly. As if there was any need to ask for that.

“Of course you can.”

Then she saw his expression, these eyes of a kicked puppy, remembered once again what Thor had said to his very own mother. _I have to see Jane back home._ Oh God.

Jane pulled Thor into an embrace, as strong as she dared with all that metal covering them both. Stroking the back of his head, she whispered:

“Let’s go home, okay?”

To her relief, Thor returned her embrace. A moment later, Jane slid off the balustrade.

“We can go right away, but I need to find Darcy first.”

Thor nodded, maybe relieved, maybe anxious to return to Earth as quick as possible, Jane could not tell. She wished she could have magicked them both off the planetoid right that moment, but fate rarely dealt the “you get a wish and free cotton candy” card. Great, now she wanted cotton candy, too.

Her legs sore from all the running, blinded by endless firelight reflected by golden walls, and tired to her bones, Jane wouldn’t have objected to curling up somewhere for a nice, long nap. As things stood, it made her walk all the quicker. Cookie, preceded by a nicely done steak, mashed potatoes and vegetables of the season. Did that mean Christmas vegetables? Jane’s stomach growled. Rosemary, steak and vegetables seasoned with rosemary. Yeah. That was what she wanted.

Darcy looked up in surprise when Jane hurriedly stepped into the room still assigned to Jay.

“What’s up, boss? Is Legolas after your hairstylist’s number?”

Jane stopped mid-step, feeling Thor barely graze her. They had almost bumped into each other.

“What’s _he_ doing here?”

Loki stood at the other side of the room, hardly impressed by Jane’s display of perfect etiquette.

“Paying a visit to the patient,” he snarled.

“Yeah. Right. Sorry,” Jane mumbled. “Darcy, can I talk to you?”

“Sure.”

Darcy left her place at the side of the bed and followed Jane out onto the terrace. With a last look inside to make sure Thor and Loki weren’t taking apart planets again, Jane turned to Darcy.

“Darce, I’m so sorry, but I gotta leave,” she whispered urgently. Darcy frowned.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m okay, but Thor – I don’t know. I’ve never seen him like that,” Jane felt herself breaking down. She couldn’t hold the tears back any longer. “He’s not okay, and I gotta take him away from here.”

Darcy’s gaze darted back to the terrace doors.

“Still not over his people’s little vanishing stunt?” she murmured through the corner of her mouth. Jane nodded, once again proud of her intern’s quick mind.

“You go get the big guy home, I’ll take care of the little lizard here,” Darcy said, squeezing Jane’s shoulder. Jane pulled her into a quick hug.

“You’re the best.”

“’Course I am.”

Already on her way back inside, Jane added quickly:

“I’ll come back for you as quick as I can, but if I don’t and Jay’s well enough, you two return to Earth as soon as possible, okay?”

Darcy looked sceptical when she replied:

“I don’t quite see that coming so soon.”

Jane quickly said bye to Jay and, with a curt nod at Loki, left the room. On her way out, she could hear Darcy say:

“So, Mister Heavy Metal. Is that how you always dress when you relax at home, or do you have some extra soft breastplates for comfy evenings in front of the TV?”

* * *

To say that Jane felt incredibly bad for leaving Darcy and Jay behind would have been the understatement of the year. When she and Thor returned to her mother’s house, there were no more traces of what had happened mere days before. Apparently Lady Beatrice had already noticed. There was a note in the kitchen, not from her, but from Nick. He had left Mrs Blonski in a first-class retirement home, which she hated. There was an address and a phone number. They visited her right that afternoon with some of Jane’s cupcakes.

On the way, Jane phoned Doctor Kapoor’s practice. She had missed her appointment, and not just did she feel a strong urge to make up for that, but there was something else she had to ask the doctor.

Somehow, Doctor Kapoor seemed to have a special spot ready for Jane, or maybe she was simply extremely lucky for a change. Either way, Jane could see the doctor the next day.

Once again, the Doc did her magic. Their hour went by way too fast, but although there was still so much Jane wanted to talk about, she felt a lot better by the end of it. Still, there was something else that weighed on her mind.

“Doctor, would you mind treating another patient?”

Doctor Kapoor raised her brows.

“That’s a bit tricky, without a previous diagnose by –“

“I’m afraid that’ll be the actual tricky bit.”

The doctor leaned back in her chair. Jane added:

“It’s tricky because he’s not human.”

That seemed to explain it. Doctor Kapoor told Jane of all the things necessary before she could do anything, and while it was good to know that there was a way to help Thor, Jane’s heart sank at the thought of what she had to do now. When she had left Doctor Kapoor’s practice, Jane dialled a number she had wanted to delete from her phone for months:

“Mother? It’s Jane. I need your help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, really busy at the moment and not much time for editing, so there might be uneven bits and pieces in this chapter. I'd been looking very forward to write this one though, and I hope you'll enjoy it a little. :)
> 
> I'm also really sorry for the inconsistent updating here, busyness doesn't leave me much time. I'm all the more happy reading your thoughts about this story! <3


	10. Chapter 10

The following months became a time of marvels: they saw an alien in counselling, a Lady Beatrice on the height of activity, and for Jane… well, it could indeed be called the beginning of the rest of her life.

But back to the beginning.

Lady Beatrice had been more than eager in helping Thor to become a citizen of Earth – maybe because someone had let her know that she was dealing with the crown prince of the galaxy. Well, there had to be _some_ assets to his gaga family.

Within weeks, Beatrice had used her contacts to inspire a new state of Earth citizenship for extraterrestrials, brought it to sufficient media attention, and had promptly whisked away Thor for an astounding press conference – astounding because Thor had managed to look downright fantastic in a suit which, no doubt, Her Ladyship had chosen. But then, Jane thought, he’d have looked gorgeous in a potato sack and a flower crown. Actually, she’d have liked to see that. He told her some weeks later that the suit had been his choice, but who cared when there could have been flower crowns?

They took the car to Thor’s first appointment with Doctor Kapoor. Jane was driving. Thor wanted to take lessons, but they had agreed to let the media hubbub evaporate a little before taking on any more photogenic hobbies. Jane was quite sure that most driving schools wouldn’t be too happy about six paparazzi trying to ride the car roof uninvitedly every other session. Jane certainly wasn’t.

Just when they were about to enter the practice, Jane’s phone rang. She took the call, gesturing for Thor to go in without her.

“Jane, Darling?”

That was what you got for not checking the number on the phone display first. She’d never learn.

“Hello, Mother.”

“How are you?”

Jane followed Thor, who was holding the door open for her, into the stairwell. He stopped, looking at her questioningly, but Jane motioned that he should go on. She sat down on the stairs.

“Uhm… standard low, I suppose. Why do you ask?”

Not her politest day, but then, her mother didn’t have a habit of asking such questions, which indicated that something wasn’t all cupcakes and sprinkles.

“You have seen Doctor Kapoor again.”

Oh. Right. Beatrice must have had the bill in her mail.

“Yes. Didn’t make it any earlier, missed my appointment…”

“I see.”

Very obviously Beatrice didn’t.

“And… are you feeling better?”

“Yes, yes, much better. Doctor Kapoor is very good.”

“I am glad to hear that.”

Awkward silence, an old friend of Jane’s she’d never offered tea to, crept up between them. Lady Beatrice, much more aware of such things and much less able to leave the tea where it was steeping, blurted out quite inelegantly:

“See, I hope you don’t mind that I did not take you along for that little presentation. I know how such things vex you.”

Was that… had Beatrice actually _thought_ about what made her daughter uncomfortable?

“Oh, that’s okay. Yeah, I don’t… all that public relations stuff, not my kind of thing,” Jane hastened to say.

“Yes, and we didn’t want it to become too embarrassing, did we?”

On the other hand, Beatrice had always had a talent for immediately erasing all plus points she’d gained mere seconds later.

“No,” Jane replied coldly. “Of course not.”

“I hope you are not angry, I would have asked first, but it was all quite hectic at the time…”

Jane positively gawked. Had Beatrice seen a doctor? Should she…?

“Uhm. That’s okay.”

“Is it? If you want –“

“No, no, it really is.”

“That is good.”

They finished their conversation with some polite platitudes, which was a definite improvement on Jane’s side compared to her habit of switching off her phone mid-sentence, ironing it, and throwing the remains into the dishwasher.

When she entered the practice, Thor had already gone into Doctor Kapoor’s office. Jane said hi to the secretary, Ms Higgins, and asked:

“Is it okay if I wait here?”

“Sure,” the other woman said with a warm smile. “Make yourself at home, you’re last today. Would you like a cup of tea?”

Jane declined, blushing to the roots of her hair, because that was what Janes did. At a loss once more, she awkwardly stumbled over her own feet onto one of the chairs set up for waiting patients.

An hour could be a terribly long time. Jane wished she had brought something to read that wasn’t one of the generic magazines the practice offered, quite aware at the same time that she hadn’t touched a book for leisure in ages, and could hardly concentrate on the daring headlines of the tabloids spread out in front of her. She was lucky in that, as one of them read “Divine Boredom – God of Thunder Secret Bachelor Again?”.

It was several minutes past seven o’clock when the door opened and Thor stepped out. Jane somehow heard Doctor Kapoor’s voice asking Ms Higgins to come into her office, the door closing behind her, but she did not notice over the look on Thor’s face.

She had wanted to ask him how it went, but the words died in her throat. Instead, Jane hugged him as best as she could: tenderly, but as firmly as she could, and hopefully not overwhelming.

There were no words for her to say. It wouldn’t have been right to tell him that “everything was okay”, because if it were, he hadn’t cried silently, the tears heating her shoulder. Neither would a “shhh” have been appropriate. She’d never have silenced him. So she waited. Thor would know what he needed, what was comfort to him.

It could have been coincidence, or maybe Doctor Kapoor and her staff simply were that good. Either way, Ms Higgins did not return to the waiting area before Thor hadn’t vanished for the bathrooms to wash his face. When he came back, Ms Higgins wished him and Jane a good night with one of her warm smiles, and that was that.

“So… was it any good?” Jane asked quietly when they went down the stairs.

“Very good,” Thor said with hints of his old smile.

Although he’d made a good job of cooling down his face, Jane was glad that it was dark outside, until they sat in the car anyway. You never knew when the odd gossipmonger felt adventurous.

On a whim, Jane leant back in the drivers seat and asked:

“We face an evening in an evil house with Darcy’s leftover chicken soup from the freezer, so… do you wanna go anywhere?”

“Well…”

“I say chicken soup, but it is basically water with bits in it. Tragedy being that it tastes like that, too.”

Thor laughed.

“I would not want to insult the Lady Darcy’s culinary works of magic, but… maybe we should go somewhere they serve more exciting food.”

“Anything you fancy?”

“Well… if it’s not supposed to be water with bits in it, I suppose the aquarium restaurant is out of question.”

Jane watched him pull his phone out of his pocket.

“Who are you calling?”

“Tony Stark. To ask him for places he recommends, so we know we will not want to visit those.”

Jane leant back, laughing. Whatever she had worried about, one thing was definitely off the list: that Thor wouldn’t find his way around humans.

* * *

Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, _bored_. Darcy clapped the book shut which she had tried to wile away the time with for the past gazillion seconds and threw it over her shoulder, hearing it thump down on the sofa. Usually she didn’t treat books like that, but as she had been told that it was an old school book that had been obligatory reading for certain princes, Darcy was sure the object had served as a football equivalent more than once in its long time of existence.

Was it time to look after Jay again? Yeah, it was definitely Jay o’clock, Darcy decided.

As there wasn’t much left the healers could do for Jay – what the half-dragon needed was rest, food, and antidepressants, or in Darcy’s vocabulary: hugs, chocolate and sitcoms – she had left the healers’ wing and moved into a spacious suite up in the royal quarters. Darcy’s guest rooms lay much lower, but then, Jane always said that a bit of walking every day was good for health. Scientists were supposed to know such things, even fuss-heads such as Jane.

Although Darcy once more lamented the lack of escalators when she set out on her way to Jay’s rooms, a part of her mind kept thinking of her little boss. Jane may have been brilliant, but it was the sort of brilliance that made her forget how to tie her shoe laces once in a while if Darcy didn’t mark them with an L and an R beforehand. Darcy hoped sincerely that during the week she had spent in Asgard now, Jane hadn’t managed to have herself magicked into a squirrel. To think that the one woman in the galaxy who could draw a world map based on the distribution of cereal was to take care of said galaxy’s only puppy with a capricious building tool… Darcy needed to go back to Earth. Quickly. Before humanity had turned into plush teddy bears wearing geeky t-shirts.

She waved a lazy hello at the guards standing in front of the doors to Jay’s suite. The men didn’t change pose, but grinned back at her. They’d become acquainted during Darcy’s shorter bouts of boredom. The guys were fun, and they knew some pretty good taverns around town.

“Jay? Sweetie, are you up?”

Darcy checked the bedroom and dressing room, and then went back to the parlour, looking into every corner. Jay hadn’t shed her lizardish habit of crawling into dark corners – of which thankfully not many existed in the Golden City of Bling – and might crouch somewhere behind a chair. No such luck today though.

Darcy was about to leave when she heard voices coming from a small dining room they had never used so far. Feeling her intern senses tingle, she tiptoed to the half-open doors.

“… your hand in marriage, and you can add another throne, a real throne, to the two that are yours by birth,” Darcy heard Loki murmur in what the moron probably thought to sound seductive. Jay replied:

“I do not desire a throne. Not even one.”

Darcy had trouble to keep herself from jumping out of her hiding place and doing a cheerleader dance for Jay. First she wanted to know what Loki was planning, then she’d get Jay out of there – not for the scrawny dragon’s sake, but for Loki’s. Darcy was that nice.

“And where would you go? Stay with me, and you will have all of this – this world, this palace –“

“You do not understand. Neither is this my world, nor am I fit to be its queen. Or yours.”

Shifting her position a little, Darcy could catch a glance of Jay. Medium grey scales crept over her bare arms and face, slender horns grew out of the skull and black talons out of her fingers. Once more the strange yellow light glowed in her eyes – before the half-dragon fainted.

Darcy caught her before Loki could so much as shift his bony arse. He attempted to help her, but Darcy was very well able to balance the lightweight that was Jay. She sneered at him:

“Get out of my way, Casanova.”

“I was only –“

“Being a jerk, yeah, I could see that. I have no idea why everyone says you’re the clever brother, and now _move it_.”

“Darcy –“

“ _Piss off!_ ”

She carried Jay’s unconscious shape back through the dressing room and to bed. The girl weighed so little, it wasn’t possible. Unhealthy scrawniness alone couldn’t cover that. Darcy’s theory said that Jay, being winged in her other shape, had hollow bones, just like birds did.

“Will you not let me explain?” Loki said while Darcy tucked in Jay. The dragon scales had retreated again, leaving Jay pale and seemingly lifeless, a tiny little bird in a ridiculously large nest. Turning dragon had cost her too much energy. What had Darcy done to be left with taking care of all these people who had no idea how to take care of themselves? Did you have to pile up a special kind of karma points to end up where she was? With a Loki, on top everything else?

Speaking of Mr Christmas Tree, he had had the nerve to sit down on the other side of Jay’s bed. Darcy eyed him coldly enough to turn him into a popsicle. Popsicle Loki, also known as the Incredible Loksicle. Duh.

“There’s nothing to explain, I heard you,” she snarled. “What’s the problem, not enough groupies to keep you busy? Feeling envious because your big bro has a permanent girlfriend now? Guess how that happened: he wasn’t an asshole.”

A spectre of light outside made Darcy look up. She hoped that it was one of Jane’s Einstein-Rosen-Bridges casting that light, and that it would bring Jane. With a giant load of cupcakes. And a rainbow unicorn, because there had to be something on every wishlist that fate could refuse you.

“Fine, if your opinion is so precious to you, you are very welcome to keep it,” Loki spat, on his feet and out of the room in a swirl of black, gold and green. Slightly gothic Christmas tree then.

Darcy leant back, picking up one of the books placed on Jay’s bedside table rather for decoration than for reading. Lucky as she tended to be, it’d turn out the most boring account of Agriculture Through The Ages the Asgardian library had ever produced.

It wasn’t. It was about slugs. Yay.

* * *

Take the Bifrost, Thor had said. It’d be fun, he had said.

By God, it was.

Clutching a big plastic box of baked delights to her chest and hoping that her backpack wouldn’t tear loose, Jane flew through time and space requiring no more than a rainbow-coloured, sparkling vortex. She felt only slightly guilty for never going through all the scientific theories she had been working with when crossing the universe, but then – it was simply too fantastic to not enjoy the glitter out of it. She had calculated the angle at which to hold the cupcake box so the frosting wouldn’t get mushed, that had to count for something.

“Catch!” was the last thing Jane could shout when she flew out of the vortex, lost her balance, and involuntarily let go of the cupcake box. Reliable as he was, Heimdall didn’t just catch the precious cupcake freight, but also a Jane in full flight. Before he could so much as put her back onto her feet, Jane had managed to regain her box and offer him one of the cupcakes.

“Try the strawberry ones. Jay likes those best.”

She didn’t bother explaining who Jay was. Heimdall would know.

“Thank you, they are delicious,” he said after a first ridiculously elegant bite. “I had long wondered what fascinated the people of Earth about this fruit and its derivates. That I would be granted the chance to experience its flavour myself, that I had not dreamt of.”

Jane smiled back.

“Want another one? There’s caramel and… well, I wouldn’t recommend bacon, they take a bit of training.”

“Thank you, but I would not dare to touch the Lady Darcy’s favourite cakes,” Heimdall winked. Jane shrugged. One definite advantage to the giant’s super-sight was that she didn’t have to explain anything.

“Hi, Sif,” she smiled when the warrior’s outlines appeared in the observatory’s opening. “Want a cupcake?”

Sif opted for a caramel cake, but she didn’t seem quite convinced of the food’s purpose. Maybe Jane should have given her a bacon specimen. Sif looked the type.

“I should bring popcorn next time,” Jane mused when the two women left the observatory. “Thor and I went to the movies this weekend – uhm, a sort of theatre – and he liked it a lot.”

Tying Jane’s baggage to the sides of the horse’s saddle, Sif shrugged.

“If you want so.”

“Hey, what’s going on?” Jane snapped. She hadn’t spent the last weeks becoming an expert in deciphering extraterrestrial moping for nothing. “What’s wrong?”

Tenderly stroking the horse’s nose, Sif said:

“Nothing. Nothing at all. Everything seems in perfect peace and harmony.”

“If only,” Jane growled. Anyway. “You’re bored, huh? Why don’t you come down to Earth? Have a bit of fun. Try some popcorn. There’s… five flavours, I think.”

Sif heaved herself into the saddle with the easiness of sneezing.

“I… shall think about it,” she said.

“Good,” Jane smiled. A good deed every day. “I’ll see you at the palace then?”

Sif lifted a brow.

“I came to fetch you.”

“But –“ The penny dropped. “Oh no,” Jane protested, “I will not –“

“Oh _please_.”

Bending down, Sif picked up Jane around the middle and draped her unceremoniously (and very gracelessly) in front of her over the back of the horse. Before Jane could jump down, they sped over the glittering bridge toward the palace.

Granted, Sif was merciful enough to help Jane into a sitting position before they reached the palace – or rather, she gripped Jane once more around the middle while they were in full gallop and dropped her onto her butt. With one of Sif’s arms steadying her, at least Jane felt a little more safe. She did wonder whether they had a speed limit for horses here, because if they did, then Sif was certainly not its friend.

They went the long way through the palace together, for Jane had no idea where to go even if Jay hadn’t moved into new rooms. She could navigate pretty well in normal places, but the palace had the size of a small city, in 3D and ridiculous golden wallpaper. Without Sif, she’d have ended up running circles around the laundry room.

“Hello?” Jane called when they entered Jay’s suite. The guards had led them through with a curt nod in Sif’s direction, but on Jane’s knocking, nobody had answered. For a place so crowded with servants, the suite was surprisingly empty.

“Boss!”

Suddenly a wild intern appeared, and what happened was a hug that almost made Jane fall over. Fortunately Sif had insisted on carrying the cupcake box. On the other hand, Darcy wasn’t one for being snobbish about what shape her cupcakes came in, after all that was why spoons had been invented. And even if not…

“Hey Darce,” Jane grinned, picking up her intern and taking a good look at her. “Wow, you’re pretty!”

Darcy grinned, an expression that didn’t quite suit her elegant gown, made up of endless swathes of blue and golden fabric. Hair and make-up as perfect as an advertisement for photoshopping, it was hard to imagine that Darcy had spent most of the last years in coarse knitting.

“Thanks. You gotta try the spa here, boss, it’s fabulous! Are those my cupcakes?”

“Your cupcakes, and…” Jane slowly pulled something small and lime green out of her pocket. “… your iPod.”

“Oooh boss…”

Darcy’s eyes looked suspiciously wet. Oh no, what had she done now?

“Darcy, are you okay?”

The intern sniffed audibly.

“Now I can show Jay the new songs I got.”

Jane felt a crooked smile creep onto her face. That was Darcy, typical, real Darcy.

“So, how’s Jay?”

“Not much – _Jay_?”

They had entered a bedroom, the covers on the piece of furniture in question drawn back, but no half-dragon to be seen.

“Not again…” Darcy sighed.

Jane looked around the room. She was sure to have sensed Jay’s presence, a faint memory of what the other Infinity Gem had felt like in her mind. There, behind a sideboard…

“Lady Darcy?” a voice from behind said. Jane turned to see a servant. “Her Majesty is here,” the woman added.

“Yup, thanks,” Darcy said as if dismissing the postman. A moment later, Queen Frigga entered the room.

“Good morning Sif, Darcy,” the queen greeted them with a smile. “And Jane, how nice to have you back.”

Jane hurried to imitate Darcy’s curtsy. It wasn’t half as graceful, which made Jane suspect that Darcy had been watching period dramas without her again.

“Did you have a pleasant journey?” Queen Frigga asked as if Jane hadn’t just stepped into a glitter elevator. Even her trips to the supermarket took longer.

“Uhm… I… brought cupcakes,” Jane managed to say while the queen went over to the sideboard. Jay sat there in her trademark position, hugging her knees.

“You should try them, Jane’s a fantastic baker,” Darcy added.

With a smile as if she were completely used to being offered lopsided cream cakes whilst picking up humanoid lizards from the floor, the queen answered: “Thank you, I shall. I am sure they are remarkably tasty.” She had taken Jay’s hands in hers, and with a hint of magic only discernable through a spark of light, helped her to her feet.

The queen led her niece over to a large sitting arrangement in the salon, followed by Darcy and Jane. Sif said:

“My queen, if you would excuse me, I have further business with the gatekeeper to attend.”

“Of course,” Queen Frigga nodded, sitting down with Jay by her side. Leaning against her aunt, who had put an arm around her, Jay immediately curled up on the sofa. Darcy took a seat at the queen’s feet, on the cushions that covered both floor and furniture. Jane wanted to do the same, but the queen padded the place on her other side.

Suddenly quite aware that jeans and a plaid shirt had been the wrong choice of clothing, Jane tried to sit down in a way that would not make her stumble over her own feet. An impossible task if your name was Jane Shyness Foster, or should have been.

Jay had fallen asleep almost immediately, curled up in her aunt’s embrace. She still glowed a little, a spell to keep her warm, Jane guessed. Queen Frigga looked down at her niece, a smile on her face. It looked slightly sad.

“I had always wished for a daughter,” she said almost apologetically to Jane. Thinking back to what Thor had told her about the king’s duty to produce a male heir, Jane had no idea how to reply. As usual, Darcy saved her – in a very Darcy way. She fell asleep.

“Shh – Darcy!” Jane hissed when her intern started to snore quietly, leaning against Queen Frigga’s right knee. The latter only chuckled, softly patting Darcy’s head.

“Darcy has been taking good care of my niece, day and night. We are in great debt to her.”

Jane hoped that Darcy didn’t have a habit of drooling in her sleep. Sadly, even that wouldn’t have saved her from what she felt she had to say next:

“Sorry that Thor isn’t here. We’re doing this project, and he’s busy…” A lame excuse, but not a lie. They had indeed started something together, and it had begun that night after Thor’s first and so far last sitting with Doctor Kapoor. In a hipster restaurant where you had to cook your own food and the owner wore a plush bunny hat all the time, but that detail Jane wouldn’t reveal to Thor’s mother.

“How is he?” Of all the things Queen Frigga could have asked, of course she would pick the worst one.

“Uhm… better. I think.”

“Can you forgive me, Jane?”

Okay, second to worst one.

“I… I don’t understand any of these things.”

“I believe you to understand them very well. Perchance better than I.”

Third to worst.

“He did not even go to see his father…” the queen said.

Broken.

Jane took a deep breath, gathering all braveness she had left before she said:

“I’m sure Thor will return. One day.” After all, who if not Jane Foster had a degree in the science of waiting for His Royal Lateness? “He’s a good man, and I’m sure he’s always been a good son.”

To Jane’s relief, this brought back at least some of the old queen’s pride, and a good deal of her smugness, too.

“Of course he is, he is _my son_. And he still is now, just as much as he was a thousand and fifty years ago, when there was no sweeter little bundle in the universe. Would you like to see?”

Jane positively beamed:

“Sure. Would you like a cupcake?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a fan of Idris Elba and that's that.


	11. Chapter 11

Cupcakes made everything better, a truth not only on Earth. Visibly in need for some happy memories from the family album, Frigga had magically summoned some holograms of her sons when they had been but tiny little cutiepies. No wonder they had been spoilt rotten, there really was no excuse not to.

Jane had to bite her lip in order not to break into cooing over the cuteness of the little blond baby climbing his mother’s lap and laughing heartily at her. Queen Frigga looked younger in this image, but even her happiness at the sight of her sons could not mask the traces of care worn into her face. The other little boy, his hair a wild mop of plushy black, took some wobbly steps before falling into his father’s arms. Visibly proud of his achievement, the boy shrieked joyfully at being lifted from the ground. How happy the old king looked when his baby son giddily babbled “Dada!” at him.

When the recording ended, Jane turned her head toward the sound of a very real cape, green in the candlelight, swooshing out of the room. She hadn’t noticed Loki’s arrival. Darcy was already on her feet.

“I’d better go after him, before he grills any smurfs again,” she said, leaving the sitting room – and Jane with two more aliens, one of whom sobbed audibly.

Queen Frigga had taken Jay into her arms, the young woman crying haltlessly. Jane, not quite knowing what she could do, excused herself. When she left the room, she could hear Jay quietly whimper the word “mama”. If it felt like a stab in the heart to Jane, what was it like for the queen? How much did taking care of her niece remind Queen Frigga of her lost twin sister? No doubt seeing the picture of her aunt when she had been younger had reminded Jay of her own mother, the only parent she’d had.

A fate any children of Jane and Thor would share, given that she couldn’t expect to experience the next four millennia with him. She snatched up her backpack and ran out of the room.

Jane blinked away her own tears angrily when she stomped down the endless hallways to Darcy’s guest room. Arriving there, she focussed on unpacking everything she had brought in her bag – some spare clothes in case Darcy and Jay wanted to come to Earth, snacks Darcy liked, and the handful of books she had kept. Looking down on the cover of the first, Jane groaned. “Pride and Prejudice”, what else?

It was high time she went back to her own alien.

* * *

Darcy had felt her ears pop all the way up to the highest floor, but that hadn’t been her greatest worry when she tried to keep up with Loki along staircase after staircase. Wheezing for air, Darcy finally lost his royal annoyingness at the top of the last set of stairs. Loki would have to find her a truly remarkable cupcake flavour to make up for this. That couldn’t be a task too difficult for him.

There was only one corridor up here, surprisingly bare and small in comparison to the palace’s otherwise grandeur. The two big doors at the end stood wide open, and the guards didn’t so much as look down at Darcy when she lurched past.

The suite behind the doors lay in complete darkness, but that only emphasised the faint shimmer reflected by the metallic walls. Darcy took her time. She wasn’t to be rushed by a guy wearing a _cape_.

Even without candles or a fireplace, not to speak of windows, the room she found did not share the darkness. A large golden boat – no, a bed shaped like a boat – was the only piece of furniture. It was covered by a strange golden glow, underneath of which lay a person. An old man. Darcy wouldn’t have been intern to Jane Foster for so long, had she not known whom she faced.

“It was the sight of me that did this to him,” Loki’s voice said. Only the shimmering bits of metal on his collar revealed his presence. “The healers say that this time it is final. He will never wake up again.”

Darcy stopped where she stood. Maybe she was silly, meddling with super scary super-aliens and all, but she wasn’t stupid enough to get any closer to two of the maddest she could have won in the intergalactic game show called “Are You Kidding Me”.

“Then maybe you should think about changing your hairstyle.”

She had prepared for being turned into a toad, a sparkly one, but Loki’s eyes just glinted at her through the twilight with little amusement.

“I did not ask you for advice.”

“No, but you look like you could do with a laugh.”

And a haircut.

Darcy didn’t quite trust Loki’s Dad. After all she had heard about the old moron, she wouldn’t have put it past him to fake the coma. Who wouldn’t have wanted to stay in bed for the rest of their life, with a pretty golden night light and everything?

Without further ado, she went over to Loki, grabbed the small part of his arm that wasn’t covered in layers of metal, and dragged him out of the room. No need to give space gramps a free radio drama.

That Prince Ego Issue didn’t unleash a cosmic tantrum probably meant that he did not mind going to a less spooky place. A large terrace, almost a garden with real trees and a little pond, seemed over the top enough to make him feel completely ridiculous. It certainly worked for Darcy.

“Thing is, you feel like you’ve never made him proud, and now you don’t have a chance of making up for it again,” she said.

“I certainly never tried to –“

“Yes, yes, skip the Me Myself And I and listen.”

“I can hardly wait,” Loki sneered.

How Darcy wished for a pair of hair cutting scissors in this moment. Or a big bucket of water, to get all that gel out of Loki’s coif. Combing back with _that_ hairline? Was he allergic to mirrors?

“The thing is also that you have no excuse not to try.”

“Have I not?”

Darcy leant on the railing, overlooking the palace’s many terraces, its elaborate gardens, the golden walkways, and beyond that a bustling city, ships floating on water and air, and tiny little dots of people going on about their daily lives. If Loki couldn’t see what she saw…

“You’ve gotten a second chance, and you’re getting a new one every day. Your mom said that your father can still hear what’s going on around him.”

She turned to face Loki.

“Every day you wake up, you can make him proud.”

* * *

What Jane wanted to say was this:

“I missed you so much oh my God don’t you ever why do you look so cute hug me right now I love you and I’ll never let you go again now kiss me –”

What she actually said was:

“Do I smell stew?”

Thor laughed, hugging her a little closer. Instead of waiting until Jane left the vortex of light, he had stepped into it nonchalantly and caught her directly in flight. Jane tried to suppress a giggle at the thought that he certainly hadn’t practised this move with Sif – or if he had, then he’d done so only once.

“Lunch is ready,” he smiled against her face before they exchanged a sweet little kiss. Putting Jane back on her feet and picking up her empty box of cupcakes, together they went into the house.

Whatever Thor had bubbling on the stove smelled so good that Jane snatched a spoonful for herself before he could catch her. She tasted beef and several vegetables, herbs and spices, all incredibly full of flavour and so well-composed that it was hard to tell what was what.

“I’d have gotten you a plate…” Thor murmured into her ear. Grinning back at him, Jane sat down at the kitchen table.

Too awed by the food put in front of her – there was fragrant rice and a salad of wonderful freshness, too – Jane did not think of speaking before she hadn’t eaten her fill. The palace food may have been extraordinary, but when it came to style, Jane preferred Thor’s way of putting things together until they became something much better over the pure, let’s-keep-foods-as-much-as-they-are way his people seemed to like.

Over a dessert of spicy baked apples, Jane finally assembled what was left of her brain cells.

“Jay is a bit better, but she’s completely down without that Infinity Gem, and there’s nothing they can do about it. She seems pretty upset about the whole thing, too.”

Jane pushed the last bit of apple around on her plate before she continued:

“I wish she could stay here, and that Darcy would come back.”

That was a selfish wish of course. Jay needed the healers’ attention, just as much as she needed her aunt’s affection. She deserved a real family, even if it was a pretty broken one. After all she’d seen, Jane still wasn’t sure what to think of the queen, but nobody could deny that she loved Thor, Loki and even Jay the way a mother loved her children. A devoted mother, Jane added, thinking of Beatrice. Some people had it, some simply didn’t. That at least was not something she could judge anyone about.

“She misses you. Like, really badly,” Jane managed to say quietly, once again the figurative epitome of empathy and eloquence – not.

For a moment she thought he was angry. Oh God, what had she done? She’d never seen Thor being angry at her, and he must have had a billion occasions, starting with the unforgettable coffee cup incident back when they’d first met. Or the car incident before. Or the car incident before the other car incident…

“I miss her, too,” he said simply.

Jane wanted to take his hand, but the gesture seemed empty to her. Instead she stood up from the kitchen bench, walked around the table and hugged Thor where he sat on his chair. He readily returned the embrace. Phew.

“She explained it to Loki and me, the reason why she vanished, but I guess I am too selfish to accept it.”

“You’re not selfish.” When it came to selfishness, Thor was probably the last person to apply, but Jane did not say so. He wouldn’t have believed her.

“I am. My brother and I were raised in the knowledge that one day, if duty demanded so, we would have to act in ways we may not like. I ran away from that duty, and now I cannot accept that it was duty which caused my mother to act the way she did, paired with her right to decide about herself. I feel deceived, although I know that was not her intention, nor her motivation. I am a bad son to her, and I don’t… I know that what she did was right, but I do not know how to change my feelings.”

Whatever Frigga had done, Jane thought. She still had no idea. It was probably a queenish thing.

“That takes time. You gotta take your time,” she said.

“Would you do that, too?”

Jane wanted to reply, but then she closed her mouth again. She had given Beatrice more than two decades.

“Yeah, but… it doesn’t always work. I just… I don’t know what else to do. I’m really, really bad at these things, so you shouldn’t…”

“You’re not.”

Somehow she had ended up sitting on his lap, their arms still firmly holding each other. Jane laid her head against Thor’s chest, listening to his deep, quick heartbeat. She felt his hand, big and warm, rest on her head, keeping her safely in place. Just for once, she liked it.

“By the way,” Jane said, “Darcy told me that your people have a holiday that is all about cats and pancakes. She’s been kidding me, right?”

Audibly relieved about the change of topic, Thor replied:

“She hasn’t. There is a holiday in autumn during which cats are thanked for their services of the year with specially baked meat pancakes.”

“Now you’re kidding me.”

“Not at all,” he said, planting a kiss onto her hair that reflected his smile. Still not quite convinced, and none the less confused, Jane asked:

“So… how’s the other thing going on?”

She and Thor had agreed that he would try to manage their secret little project on his own while she was gone. Not that there was much to do except for taking messages, but then, Thor’s first tries at living in the human world on his own didn’t have to be taken in giant steps. He had time.

“Quite well. I was told that it should not take any longer than another week before we will receive the keys.”

“Great,” Jane smiled, adjusting her position so she could rest her arms on Thor’s shoulders, their noses almost touching. Touching. Almost touching. Touching. “We can have the first rooms ready before Christmas.”

They had been talking about buying a house together – and it hadn’t gone well. To be more precise, Thor had made the suggestion, and Jane had looked at him in a way that had caused him to give off a very high whining sound. If she hadn’t felt so sorry for him, she’d have tried to reproduce the experiment.

Jane didn’t have a problem with Thor’s idea in itself, in fact, she was giddy as a pink marshmallow hippo that he saw their relationship as something that permanent already. What she couldn’t accept was that, technically, they wouldn’t buy the house together, simply because she didn’t have the money. She couldn’t contribute anything. It was out of question.

They could, however, find a house for some friends who didn’t have a roof over their heads at all, which was what they had done immediately.

There was an empty office building quite close to F. Street, not a beauty, in definite need of repair, but available. An exclusive address in the city and therefore super expensive, but that wasn’t of concern to Thor. He was much more worried whether the concrete cube could be turned into flats soon enough before the real winter cold began. Actually, after they had visited the building for the first time, Thor had been worried whether it could be turned into something worth living in at all. He had never seen any other human accommodations than the trendy city house of Lady Beatrice’s and Tony Stark’s private skyscraper. Jane’s trailer he had thought to be nothing but a temporary sleeping accommodation, which strictly said it had been. To give Thor a broader idea of how humans lived, Jane had then shown him pictures of the numerous rooms she’d inhabited before. It wasn’t quite as much of a relief to Thor as Jane had hoped, but he seemed to trust her judgement that the people of F. Street would not suffer a lack in comfort, once they moved into their new home.

Even if it was a Christmas surprise, or a New Year’s surprise, or however one wanted to call it, Jane wouldn’t have given her okay for such a project without asking Mrs Powel, Mr Jiddles and all the others if it was what they really wanted. Benevolence was one thing, entitlement another. Jane was quite positive that one day Thor would grasp the concept of not doing anything for other people before they hadn’t confirmed they wanted it done, no matter how sure he was to do the right thing. It wasn’t his fault, as semi-telepaths his people didn’t have to tell each other that they all disliked golf (golf being the first thing to dislike Jane could think of for aliens who lived on a rather small planetoid – unless they had a tradition of building their meteors out of golf balls, then it made sense).

Exactly one week later, Mrs Powel unlocked the main entrance of 75 G. Street under great cheers and the awkward clack-clacking of plastic glasses being raised for a toast. They were filled with a mix of fruit juice and soda, because Jane wasn’t sure if everyone could handle real champagne or sugary lemonade. They’d have a proper party once the flats were done. Jane had already caught herself thinking of possible excuses for leaving early.

They didn’t do much that day, just had a look at the rooms – fortunately only two on second floor had broken windows, the others were dry and warm – and then carted in a truckload of foldable guest beds, sheets, blankets and pillows. Jane had washed the sheets and linen first, of course. She hated the factory smell of fabrics, and if the first night in G. Street couldn’t be perfect, then it should at least be as good as it could be.

By the time everything had been unloaded into the lobby, Mr Jiddles confessed to her that the rooms had already been divided up to everyone’s content. Jane was relieved, as that had been one thing she hadn’t wanted to do at all. She couldn’t imagine why Mr Jiddles was blushing, but then, he was an awfully polite man.

They had a lovely dinner in the first floor hallway together: twenty-five people sitting on quickly assembled cushions, eating chicken with roast vegetables, spicy potatoes and salads from the kitchen in Lady Beatrice’s house, followed by loads of baked fruit – Jane had immediately fallen in love with Thor’s dessert invention – and her trademark cupcakes. It was a charming feast, only topped by the discovery that the house still had perfectly working, if quite dusty, tea kitchens and bathrooms. They had a lot of work to do. A lot of work nobody thought about that night.

Some rooms were still vacant, and so Jane and Thor put up one of the foldable beds for themselves as well. This had been Thor’s suggestion, his reason being that they could be around in the morning, and Jane had agreed more than quickly. She’d have slept in the pigeon house if that meant one night away from the Furniture of Failure.

And so it came that while Jane and Thor both agreed that the mattress was by far too soft, none of them minded much: with the bed designed for one standard human being, it just so sufficed to have Thor lay down on it. It left Jane no other chance than to seek rest on him respectively, curled up on his calmly heaving chest and underneath the new, fluffy covers. Oops. Entirely unintended snuggling ensued. Entirely unintended.

“Warm enough?” Thor asked quietly.

“Baking,” Jane grinned into his t-shirt, pulling the thick covers over her head. A moment later, she had fallen asleep.

In the following days, news of what was going on in G. Street spread, and soon became a media event. Several companies offered sponsorship for the more technical things that needed to be done – plumbing, moving walls, plugs and lights – and others donated vouchers for furniture, food and household articles. Jane had an eye on who did what, after all they didn’t need fifteen plumbers per shower, but apart from that left it to everyone else whether they wanted the gifts, and to Thor whether he wanted any help with the renovation works. They had too much fun doing those together… especially after the second day, when even more unexpected help arrived.

Jane had been busy all morning coordinating donations. There were a lot of donations from ordinary people up to big businesses she couldn’t just divide up. She hadn’t wanted to call her mother, although Lady Beatrice was a natural with finances, but the thought had reminded her that Richard worked for a sort of trust. She had tried to reach him for the past hour before resorting to sending him a text message. Just when she had finished, her phone rang.

“Richard?”

“Uh – sorry, no, it’s Ian. Uh, Ian the intern, Doctor Foster,” a faintly familiar voice at the other end replied.

“Oh – I’m sorry, of course. Ian. How are you?” Jane said, waving a group of carpenters through to a kitchen where they were supposed to put up some cupboards.

“Still working for Erik.” His voice sounded pressed.

“Ian, are you okay?”

There was a buzz in the line, then Ian’s voice returned, whispering this time:

“There will be a publication about –“ He perfectly shouted the rest of the sentence, making Jane hold the phone as far away from her ear as she could: “Yes, that is right, there will be a new publication by Professor Selvig by the beginning of next year. I am afraid that we cannot reveal any more than announced in the press release. Thank you for your call.”

That probably meant Ian was not on the shortlist for being the next James Bond. Jane shrugged to herself. Erik could do whatever he wanted, and if he had discovered something new about Einstein-Rosen-Bridges, that wasn’t just a privilege, it was a duty.

Or so she told herself before starting to drag around the biggest and heaviest boxes she could find. According to her calculations, and with weights of this extent, it would take her about an hour to calm down.

“Need a hand?” Steve Rogers grinned when Jane, unable to see anything behind the large mirror she was carrying, almost walked into him. They were about to finish Mrs Blonski’s bathroom, so she could move out of her retirement home soon.

“Oh – uhm – hi!” she tried to reply, but before she knew, the mirror was taken out of her hands.

“I’m Steve Rogers, and this is Sam Wilson, our new Avengers teammate. You must be Jane Foster.”

“Steve and Sam, or Fluffy Chicken and the Falcon for you,” Sam winked. Jane grinned back.

“Where are the other Avengers, repairing the roof?” she asked.

Sam laughed.

“Now you mention it, that’d have been a good idea.”

A booming noise from upstairs made them all look up.

“Was that –“ Steve started.

“Yup,” Jane said, rolling her eyes, “that’s that hammer.”

“Is he –“

“Renovating. He’s gotten himself a library card last week. We’re doing everything by the book now.”

“Really everything?” Sam grinned.

Jane led her visitors up the stairs to the second floor, where a lot of dust had just started to settle when a rather large hammer stamped a gaping hole into one of the cardboard-thin walls.

“Precisely where it was needed, well done!” an excited Ms Powel exclaimed when she peeked through the wall. She had turned out an amazing expert on architecture, and now took care of the reconstruction planning. Ms Powel had never studied at a college herself, she had worked a bad factory job in order to support her brother’s education after they had emigrated from Nigeria. She had read all his textbooks about architecture, until the shock of his early death in a car accident. Most of those books she could still quote by heart.

“Show-off,” Jane grumbled in Thor’s direction, much to Ms Powel’s amusement.

“In a helpful way though.”

Jane rolled her eyes, then led her guests into the rooms that were supposed to be shaped into a flat next. She was glad to see Thor’s face light up when he met his friend, their hearty hug, and how easily he and Sam got along, as if they hadn’t just met there and then. Jane wished Darcy would have been with them. She’d have enjoyed the sight of three chunky superheroes doing construction work in tight t-shirts.

Sadly, one side effect was that after a while of pulling down walls and clearing out rubbish, the three of them started a bragging contest – and Jane didn’t have to look in order to know who was about to win.

Time to show the big guys how the Foster women handled tools.

Jane waited until Thor threw his hammer again, quickly calculated the back loop it would take… and when it flew back, she snatched it right out of the air.

“What –“ she heard Steve exclaim, drowned out by Sam’s cheers.

“Want it back?” she grinned at Thor who had stopped where he stood, a grin slowly spreading over his face, too. “Catch me if you can.”

Most of the new inhabitants of G. Street had left the floor while the reconstruction was going on, which was lucky, as the ensuing game of catch quickly picked up speed. The most difficult part for Jane was decidedly not the running, but to keep herself from giggling madly at the hilarity of it all. She should hug alien tools more often, they did such a great job energising her.

They zipped through all the rooms and back without Thor being able to reclaim his hammer – he totally didn’t let her win, obviously, and Jane totally didn’t wait for him behind every corner so she could try to tickle him before dashing off, just as obviously. Still, they had guests. Minutes later, they played in two teams: Jane and Thor played the hammer back and forth between them like a football as they ran another round, Sam and Steve trying to catch them. They didn’t.

“I know you’re pretty busy chasing wormholes and that sort of stuff,” Sam said to Jane, trying to catch his breath, “but if we ever put up an Avengers football team, you’re in.”

“Cool,” Jane smiled. “If that’s what being an Avenger is like, I’m moving in fulltime.”

For a little while longer, she and Thor would not move anywhere fulltime, that Jane was sure of. How quickly they would choose and settle down in a house of their own though, even she would not have guessed – nor that the house would choose them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They all let Jane win on purpose, and only partly because their football is a little difficult to catch. ;)


	12. Chapter 12

Jane wouldn’t have believed it possible, but then, she dated an alien mistaken for a god and travelled by wormhole more than she took the bus. Either way, she came to witness how Darcy despised wearing cardigans.

“I can’t believe we keep wearing this crap, everything’s scratchy and nothing fits!” Darcy complained. Back for the first time from her holiday in space, where she had been clad in nothing but silks and velvets shaped into loose, flowing dresses, Darcy had some trouble readjusting to life on Earth. She had almost cried over the unexciting breakfast they had had in a café an hour before – “I’m gonna be so thin!” – until Jane had promised to make surprise pie for them all when they were back. It might have been selfish, but she didn’t want to lose Darcy so soon to an alien world again, not because of some wobbly toast and runny jam.

“Is that it?” Darcy asked, waking Jane from her brooding.

Thor checked the number sign at the gate of the house they faced.

“The address is correct.”

“Doesn’t look like on the picture.”

That was true. The picture the real estate agent had sent them showed a friendly, if a bit boring old family house, the type that had as little personality as a new pair of grey socks. The house in front of them right now looked like the picture’s eccentric aunt, who had her hair dyed in rainbow colours, made a living off cat sculptures made from empty nail polish bottles, who still dressed in mini skirts and could pull it off despite her age. Jane had wondered why Thor had chosen this particular house for their first visit, but now she suspected the reason to be rooted in his telepathic abilities.

“Is that turret going… _horizontal_?” Darcy asked.

“The purple one that looks like an angry pencil, or the one that winds around it like a spiral?”

“That’s a chimney.”

They met a fairly nervous Mr Wen at the front door. At least that part of the house was easy enough to find, although it looked as if taken straight out of Disneyland. Jane sincerely hoped that there were no singing mice inside.

“The Fosters, I suppose?” Mr Wen asked, holding the door open for them. He seemed eager to keep the peculiar outside of the house hidden from them. It took Jane a moment to realise that his nervousness may as well have been a result of Mr Wen recognising them from the news, but only because he used her last name for them all. Oh well, it wasn’t as if Darcy hadn’t been part of the family for years.

After having left their coats – the house was generously cosy for such an old building in winter, a good sign – they were led through a generous entrance hall that could have belonged to the odd fantasy movie inn for trolls, dwarfs and elves (Jane hoped sincerely there were no elves around), through a broad corridor that divided a large living room from an even larger kitchen, to a turn-of-the-century glasshouse, including some plants that looked as if they hadn’t been watered since the turn of the century either. Darcy was amazed.

“Oh wow, an orangery!”

“That… wasn’t here last time…” Mr Wen mumbled.

Jane murmured in Thor’s direction:

“Did you see this from outside? We should have been able to see this from outside.”

“The house was not this big from outside either.”

An astrophysicist specialising in gravitational effects bending space itself and an alien practically living these phenomena couldn’t be that wrong about estimating the approximate size of a house that should technically have been not even half the size of what they saw in front of them. Mr Wen seemed just as confused.

“Maybe we should look at the rooms upstairs…” he said.

They followed him back to the entrance hall and up a comfortably broad staircase that creaked the melody of “Memory” if hopped on in the correct order – Jane tried.

“He doesn’t look very happy. Do you think they’re selling the house too cheap?” Darcy whispered at her when Jane had caught up.

“I have no idea, something is weird about this house.”

“What do you mean, the fifteen styles of architecture or that there’s a meadow if you look out of the orangery windows?”

Jane arched her brows.

“What’s wrong with a meadow?”

“Nothing, except it’s where the street should be, and that the kitchen shows a coastline where there was sweet little bunnyville five foot to the left,” Darcy snarled quietly.

Taking a deep breath, Jane said:

“Okay, try to cheer up poor Mr Wen, will you?”

“What? Why?”

A cry of surprise made them both look up to the other end of the upstairs corridor, where the two men stood in front of a tiny door of brilliantly teal-coloured wood.

“That wasn’t here last time either,” Mr Wen breathed.

Jane looked back at Darcy: “That’s why.”

She went over to Thor and took his hand, doing her best to look as freshly in love as any possible. Jane had never been an actress, she had kissed Thor for the first time almost three years ago, and she’d slapped him once – twice – too, not to mention their recent fallout about the whole house-buying thing, but… now that they stood here, in the most impossible building Escher could have thought up, a new secret to discover behind every door… it wasn’t that hard to glue herself to Thor’s side, giggle like the silly pocket calculator she was, and beam up at him.

“Do you mind if we have a look around on our own?”

Mr Wen did not mind at all, and Jane was relieved to see that he looked a little more happy already.

Darcy wanted to know more about the history of the house, and while Jane would have loved to hear that, her sense of adventure tingled stronger than it had since she’d flown through a wormhole for the first time. Thor grinned back at her, that cheeky smile of his that told Jane he knew exactly what she was up to.

Still arm in arm, they vanished through the door closest to them.

“Oh,” Jane said, trying not to laugh, “charming.” They stood in a large bathroom that had clearly seen better days, remarkable days actually, when its ocean green tiles had still sparkled with gold ornament, highlighting a lion-clawed bathtub as well as a small pool in front of a half-circle-shaped panorama window. The sight here was a breathtaking view over snow-covered mountains, the sky coloured in pastels and wispy clouds although it was about noon.

Nothing a good scrub couldn’t bring back to old hilarity.

“Jane, over here.”

Thor held open another door for her. It didn’t show the next room, the one they had seen from the corridor, but instead led to a narrow hallway, so short that it hosted no more than two more doors and a staircase, steep enough to pass for a ladder.

“Last one’s a rotten Chitauri!” Jane shouted, sprinting past Thor and up the ladder. She laughed excitedly when she felt his hand almost catch her ankle, put all her strength into that last leap and darted up onto a small platform. Sadly, that had been the last of her power.

“Jane! Jane are you –“

“Fine, I’m fine.”

She waved Thor’s hand away when he tried to help her sit up. Too bad they’d left the hammer with their coats. Jane had definitely felt it charging her during their game of touch football with Sam and Steve. Oh well.

“Jane?”

“It’s okay, I –“

The single door at the end of the platform must have been much better oiled than the others in the house, for it had opened silently at Thor’s touch. What lay behind it took Jane’s breath away for the second time within minutes.

She felt herself scooped up into Thor’s warm arms, and when he carried her over the doorstep, she didn’t mind at all. Even without her lack-of-Infinity-Gem-induced inconvenience, Jane wasn’t sure she could have kept herself up on her legs very long. This place was too fantastic.

The room lay at one of the top corners of the house, shaped by its gently swung roof, and lighted by large windows, the frames branching into shapes of flowers, birds, moons and even stars which held the glass panes, some of them slightly coloured. Toward the end of the oddly shaped room, a little to the left, stood a majestic bed frame that may as well have been built in with the first floorboards, as sturdy as it looked. The first inhabitants must have been giants, judging by its size, or just playful. Jane didn’t care. She simply thanked them for the glass dome directly above the bed, rid of decoration, so that the whole of the sky was visible through it.

Every seven steps or so, there was a bay window complete with benches allowing generous space for, well, about two people, and on the right of the door, opposite the bed, three steps led down to a large clear area in front of a frankly ridiculous fireplace. Jane smiled. They’d found their room. Especially…

“You can let me down.”

Thor did so without asking. She loved him so much.

Jane went straight toward a narrow iron staircase, no more than a metal skeleton of engineering skill, that rose almost shyly in one of the odd corners before the floor turned into downward steps. She climbed up easily, feeling the ladder reverberate, but not shudder, when Thor followed her. Despite his broad build, he had no problem winding and squeezing himself around the ladder. Jane grinned at him, a little proud. Darcy had compared him to a bear once in a while, but now Jane thought that he reminded her much more of a very big cat. A tiger, maybe. Yeah. She liked tigers, a lot.

“Look at this…”

Thor climbed through the tiny opening at the top of the stairs after her without difficulty, and together they sat down on the platform – the roof didn’t allow an upright position, even to Jane. There was just enough space for the two of them to curl up comfortably together.

They sat under the roof of a small tower, with sight of the room’s glass dome and even the edges of the orangery downstairs. Apart from that, a sheer endless land stretched around the house – green meadows, light forests and thick woods, some hills in the distance, and close to them, just so that it should be visible from the room down, too, a rocky coast turning into a gently gleaming beach. Now, Jane had been quite sure that the suburb they’d arrived at this morning had never been any closer to the sea than hosting three fish’n’chips shops, neither of which was to be seen from either side of this turret.

A wormhole house. They had found a wormhole house.

“This is it, isn’t it?” she asked.

Thor kissed her in reply.

How happy Mr Wen would be, after he’d had such a troubling morning, Jane thought quite happily to herself when she snuggled into Thor’s arms.

* * *

The inside-bigger-than-outside house must indeed possess time travelling skills, as there was no other way they could have made it back to the inner city before lunchtime. This turned out lucky, as there were unexpected guests waiting.

“Jane?” Richard asked, his ears turning an alarming shade of crimson when he plopped from the kitchen bench onto his feet. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to – I was let in –“

“By me. I hope you do not mind,” Sif said. “Darcy mentioned this man’s name, therefore I thought it better to keep him in the event that he came with important news. I can see him out, if you want,” she added in Jane’s direction.

Oh Lord.

“No, no, that’s fine,” Jane stammered. “Unless you wanna go, Richard – I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

“Oh, I’ve been guarded very well for the past two and a half hours,” he smiled. “But before we talk business, do you mind if I vanish to the bathroom?”

Jane quickly pushed Sif out of the way, trying her best to smile in a way that didn’t look as if she were attempting to impress a pack of hyenas (no offence intended to any hyenas, Jane had a soft spot for those animals as well, paired with some solid respect for their teeth). Given how long Richard had had to wait, Jane decided not to take the speed with which he left the kitchen for an indicator as to whether she had succeeded.

“So that is Richard?” Thor asked. Jane chose to ignore him, for a moment later, another voice from upstairs asked:

“Is he gone?”

Jane sighed.

“It’s fine, kitten, don’t worry. Richard’s a friend.”

While Sif helped Jay down the stairs, carrying the small alien rather than walking next to her, Jane side-glanced at Darcy, who had clear trouble in keeping back her laughter.

“Not. A. Word,” Jane snarled.

Fortunately she had been shopping for groceries with Thor before, so the kitchen was stocked to the ceiling with foodstuffs. Thor had a risotto going before anyone noticed, a clever recipe that included mixing a warm salad into the rice after serving. Jane quickly copied her baked fruit recipe for puddings, feeling embarrassingly uncreative in comparison. On the other hand, Thor didn’t have to moderate between three aliens, two humans, and a lot of “it’s complicated”.

Although Jane had feared that he might take off through the downstairs bathroom window, Richard did return to the kitchen. She had finally managed to contact him the week before about setting up the trust for the donations G. Street had received. Mr Jiddles just so happened to have worked in a bank once, before he had been replaced by a computer, so he and Ms Powel were going to manage the thing.

They settled the matter quite quickly, agreeing that Richard would contact Ms Powel and Mr Jiddles on his own. Now that most of the renovation of G. Street was done, Jane and Thor didn’t have much left to do there, and Jane didn’t want to appear as if she was trying to tell the house’s new inhabitants what they were supposed to do. In fact, the building itself was to be passed to the trust, so it would become truly independent.

Jane wished it would have been so easy with the house she and Thor were about to buy. She hadn’t told him, but the only reason why Jane had finally agreed to checking out the advertisements had been an envelope Steve had passed her before he and Sam had taken off – a day before Darcy had arrived, to her great disappointment. She had been doubly sad about missing two heroes at once.

“Director Coulson said you forgot this,” Steve had said.

_Director._

“I didn’t. I didn’t want it,” Jane had replied. It was the cheque of compensation for her lab equipment. As that had been returned to her, Jane hadn’t touched the money.

“It also contains your pay for… some weather job in Norway, I think he said.”

Jane rolled her eyes at the thought. Coulson had honestly felt bad for first taking away all her stuff, and then shipping her off into nothingness for no logical reason whatsoever, without any explanation or a way for her to speak to Thor? He couldn’t have foreseen that those ideas had both been absolute rubbish? The man should see a shrink. Not hers. Hers was too cool.

This had been the thought that finally had persuaded Jane to accept the envelope. If Coulson had a heavy conscience for making her feel so bad, then he could as well make sure she felt better. After all, she’d never received any payment for her work in Norway, even if it had only consisted of painting lows onto a weather map. Jane Foster may not have been an expert on iambics, but she knew how to spell the word “butthurt”.

“How did you meet Jane then?” Thor rumbled in Richard’s direction, waking Jane from her memories in a way that did not exactly remind her of morning cuddles and breakfast in bed. He didn’t sound unfriendly. He just didn’t sound that friendly either.

“We’ve never really met,” Richard said with a most perfect business expression, “our families are acquainted.”

What a way to say “we were about to get coupled up by our parents”. Somehow Jane wondered whether that wouldn’t have been an expression Thor would have accepted more easily. For Richard’s next question she’d have loved to kick his shin:

“So you two are –“

“Married,” said Darcy.

“Betrothed,” snarled Sif.

“Nice,” whispered Jay.

Jane shrugged. “Take the arithmetic mean.”

Richard was smart enough to understand, and to take his leave shortly after.

Darcy showed Jay the living room sofa, gave her the lime green iPod (“I found that song you liked, it’s on auto repeat so you’ll never want to listen to it again and I can delete it.”), and then went upstairs to catch up on sleep. Jane wondered a little if Darcy had kept up her peculiar sleeping patterns in the palace, too. It was probably not too hard to have that pass for jetlag.

Speaking of sleep…

“Sorry, I feel rotten,” Jane said. “I’ll go have a nap, if you don’t mind.”

Fortunately she did not notice the worried gazes Thor and Sif exchanged. It would not have served to improve on Jane’s mood.

“Wait, I’ll –“

“You don’t have to –“

“I’m tired, too,” Thor lied. “Please excuse us, Sif, Jay…”

Jane managed to reach the upstairs bathroom on her own legs, and spent what felt like half an hour in there. This was decidedly not the best time for that once-per-month ordeal of womanhood to announce itself with fanfares and acute dizziness.

When she finally entered the master bedroom, Thor stood at the window, visibly unsure whether he should sit down or jump to her side. It looked funny enough to make Jane swallow the snappish things she’d wanted to say to him. Instead, she had herself flomp into bed – it was a little cosier with all the new covers, which they used to lie down on as well – and say simply:

“I don’t get why you make such a fuss about Richard. I hardly know more than his name.”

She felt Thor sitting down next to her. He did not touch her.

“I apologise,” he said quietly. “I supposed that you were… I was gone so long…”

Jane could have retorted with a whole lot of things about the topic of being away for more than two years and then expecting her not to have looked for another boyfriend, not to mention that it wasn’t Thor’s business at all who was her friend and who wasn’t, but she found the strength to suppress that urge. It wouldn’t get them anywhere.

“While Mother would have loved that, nope, we hardly ever met,” she said, adding glumly: “And that wasn’t something I’d call enjoyable, that you can be sure of.”

Thor sighed. It sounded so lost that Jane couldn’t help but pity him, and feel bad for being angry and not being able to get over that, to reach out for him… but even if she had wanted to, she did not have the physical strength. Stupid body of hers.

“Humans have so many ways of choosing partners that I was not sure whether…”

“You’re the only one.”

The anger flared up again in her. Jane had been the one left behind, Jane had been the part of this relationship who couldn’t have been sure if Thor so much as remembered her, or had already found himself a more long-lived partner with a fondness for metal wonderbras. Jane was not the one who was in the duty of proving her feelings for him.

Disappointment. The feeling was disappointment, because she hadn’t thought him to be that sort of man. Guy. Alien. Fluffybeep McAwesomecuddler.

“I’m not going to let you watch any more romantic comedy movies featuring love triangles if you don’t stop being jealous of a man who never saw much more of me than the back of a menu in a restaurant,” she growled, curling up on the bed when her muscles cramped. Her face must have betrayed her, for Thor immediately switched to nurse mode.

“Jane, what is it? Are you in pain?”

“Would you _stop_ mollycoddling me for a moment and take me seriously instead!” Yes, she was in pain, and by God, it felt good to yell. “I’m not bitching at Sif for having been your bestie for hundreds of years and whatever else, because I _know_ that you’re not right now, and I don’t care if you ever were! I find it easier to enjoy being together with you, and she’s great, and I’m not ruining that. Just because I’m human doesn’t mean I’m not able to stick to my word, or a partner!”

“I don’t doubt that, and I am sorry if I came to that conclusion wrongly. It was just that with human lifespans being so short in comparison to my people’s, I thought…”

“Yes, thanks very much for reminding me!” Jane spat, unable to fight the cramp that surged through her in a flash of pain that didn’t want to ebb off even when shown the door for particularly unwelcome guests.

It was a very literal door, however, that saved Jane. The bedroom door was opened.

“Are you – do you want me to come back later?” Sif’s voice asked. Jane opened her eyes.

“You’re Heaven-sent,” she mumbled weakly.

Sif gave her a curious look.

“Actually, nobody sent me. That is why I came here. You did not seem to feel well, so I thought that perhaps I should tell you sooner…”

“Tell me about Thor’s ex-lovers, so that he stops being jealous of Richard. Who was never my boyfriend to begin with,” Jane growled.

To her immense gratefulness, a wicked smile spread over Sif’s face when she looked at Thor. Jane felt him move behind her, probably in a gesture of helplessness. Good. He deserved this.

“Well, not as there were many, but he did seem head over heels for this princess of Nix… until he found out that she was a sea monster trying to lure him into her underwater cave just like the rest of her prey,” Sif grinned.

“I wasn’t –“ Thor started.

“You _were_ , until you saw her two dozen tentacles, anyway,” Sif smirked back at him.

Jane said:

“Just two dozen? Are you sure –“

Her words were cut off by another wave of pain surging through her mid. This time, Jane had two aliens fuss about her, one per side. How handy.

“Jane, what is it?” she heard Thor’s voice, full of honest worry. Maybe she shouldn’t have teased him so. Maybe. But then, Darcy would have said that she should have teased him even more, and joined in, and given her a handbook for next time. Darcy tended to be right about these things.

“Are you with child?” Sif said with a slight panic in her voice that Jane found simply adorable. As if they’d already asked her to become their offspring’s nanny. Not a bad thought, maybe.

“That can’t be –“ Thor began, but Jane cut off his words.

“The exact opposite,” she growled through gritted teeth when the next cramp came. Noticing that neither of her saviours knew what she was talking about, she added: “I got my period, you ducks.”

“Oh. That – oh.” Sif sounded almost intellectually startled. “I have never seen anyone react to it like this.”

“Humans failed evolution on that scale,” Jane managed to say. She had read a couple of articles on the topic. “It’s painful and exhausting normally, but you clench your teeth and stick through it. I’m just… ew… not in good shape at the moment, so sorry ‘bout the drama. It’s gonna be over by tomorrow.”

It wouldn’t be, but usually that was when Jane could ignore the symptoms, or at least pretend they were gone.

“What’s going on?” a sleepy voice from the door said.

“Nothing, Darcy. I got my period.”

“God, Jane, not _again_ …” Darcy sighed.

Jane rolled her eyes. “Guess what, my period occurs periodically.” Darcy never had hers more often than every three months at most, and she hardly noticed any effects. Lucky intern.

“Are Sif and Thor taking care of you?”

“Yup. Go back to sleep.”

“Okay.” The door closed. Sif sighed.

“Very well, stretch,” she said.

“What?”

“I said: stretch. Your muscles are cramping, and you’re encouraging them to do so. Stretch. You have to work against the tension.”

Jane felt Sif pick her up and place her on her back, legs long, back straight. She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but it felt better indeed.

“Stretch yourself a bit, if you can. Make yourself long – well – average size, for someone as short as you,” Sif teased. “You can try lying on your stomach, but you will want to take care of your back.”

“Mm-hm,” Jane mumbled. She felt sleepier by the second. A pair of big, warm hands were tenderly placed on her stomach.

“Is this where the pain is?” Thor asked quietly, lying down next to her carefully and without so much as disturbing the blankets.

“Yup. That’s good.”

It wasn’t as if a simple hot water bottle wouldn’t have sufficed, but who was Jane to reject being mollycoddled? Oh.

“You should –“ Thor said, interrupting himself before saying: “Would you like to see a doctor? A healer?”

Jane would have rolled her eyes, if not for the splitting headache that had just returned from an extended holiday in no-hormones-land.

“It’s normal, I told you. I’ll be fine. I’m just not strong enough right now, and you know why.”

Sif said:

“Actually, that is why I wanted to see you. I brought something.”

Jane’s eyes flew open. Sif held something in her hand, brick-shaped, glowing red in the middle.

Oh yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first half of this chapter has been my favourite part so far - but only because it pretty much wrote itself and didn't require much editing. ;)
> 
> I wasn't sure if I should really keep the second half like this. I never much liked that line "So who's Richard?" in "The Dark World" because it didn't quite fit the character and was clearly written in for a low laugh. But then it was a chance for character development, the whole "aliens from outer space" theme, and Jane teaming up with Sif, so... yes?


	13. Chapter 13

“Are you sure the study is a good place to try an Infinity Gem?” Thor asked, eyeing the pots of crafting glitter Jane had stacked up neatly in the corner.

“If we went for the worst room in the house, that’d be our bedroom, and as terrible as it is, we still need it with its roof intact,” Jane replied.

Her eyes were fixed on Sif, who had placed the glowing little alien lunch box on the floor in the centre of the room. It was calling for her. Just for a change, Jane would have liked to pick up.

“Why is it here?” asked Thor, not sounding in the mood for smalltalk. “Loki said he had sent you to hide it in a safe place.”

“He did, and the gatekeeper informed me that that place was no longer safe, so I went to bring it back.” Jane should have expected Sif to not be impressed by her old friend’s moods, specifically when it came to his brother. “And before we have not found another way, I am guarding these.”

As Sif’s hand pulled something small and gleaming out of her pocket, an audible gasp made them all turn to the door. Jay stood there, her eyes fixed on the Time Gem on Sif’s bare palm.

Jane sighed. “Kitten, you’re not supposed to be up.” Rather than standing on her own feet, Jay was clinging to the doorframe like a sailor while the kraken was being taken for a walk.

“That is mine.” Jay pointed at the yellow-glowing stone.

“Yes, but you can’t have it back. That wouldn’t be good for you.”

Jay’s gaze dug into Jane’s.

“I thought you would understand.”

Jane did understand, oh yes. She felt her jaw clenching, waves of painful period cramps still surging through her, but all of a sudden something had drowned them out: an idea.

“Maybe there is a way.”

Before she knew, Sif had hidden away the Time Gem and picked up the Aether from the floor. In this very moment, the strange signal Jane had felt simply stopped.

“Wait,” she said. “Put it down once more.”

“Jane, I do not think –“

“Put it on the floor, then take it into your hand again. Please,” she added, remembering at least one base rule of politeness.

Sif’s eyes narrowed, but she seemed to understand. She placed the small stone box on the floor – there was the old sensation pulsating through Jane’s bones – and then placed her hand on it, only to have the calling disappear.

“You’re blocking it out. When you’re close to the Aether or the other Gem, I can’t sense them,” Jane said with the true fascination of a scientist.

“Well then, let’s see what this one does,” Sif replied, storing the Aether away and replacing it with the Time Gem – with impressive results.

While Jane could merely sense the stone, it was nothing compared to Jay’s reaction: she turned into a half-dragon. Wings, claws, horns, the full Halloween show. Even her voice had become a bottom-deep growl such a slender creature should not have been able to produce.

“That. Is. Mine.”

“Ask nicely,” Sif retorted, pocketing the Time Gem once more. Jane had no time to be disappointed, for Jay had promptly fainted in the doorway again, all scales and talons having disappeared conveniently. Thor, having attended more seminars named “How To Be A Knight In Shining Armour” than good for anyone, had foreseen the gesture and caught Jay before she could drop onto the solid floorboards.

“Why is there a fainted Jay in our hallway?” Darcy’s sleepy voice asked from upstairs.

“We’re training juggling with magical stones. Jay won,” Jane gave back before she felt Sif hoist her up from where she’d sunk to the ground. Darcy replied:

“Does that mean we’ll have a second breakfast?”

Just for once, Jane did not care enough to point out that technically, that would be their third breakfast. As if anyone besides her would have counted them.

* * *

It had taken Darcy ages to get out of the house that night. First there had been an extended dinner with Sif, which had been fun, but exhausting – Sif wasn’t as forgiving about people nicking bits of her puddings as Jane and Thor were. After that, Jay had had trouble adjusting the new headphones Jane had given her because Darcy’s didn’t fit her tiny ears. When Darcy had finally thought she could sneak out of the front door, Thor had come looking for her because the incredible had happened: Jane had volunteered to make a telephone call. Well, what Thor had actually said was that Jane had arranged a meeting with Dr Bruce Banner, and that they were about to leave as of immediately, but Darcy hadn’t listened quite so much to the detail.

One half-arsed excuse later (“I’m not coming with you, I’m allergic to Tony Stark’s aftershave, Pepper told me, and there’s a telenovela final on TV tonight which I really need to miss, and if you don’t bring me a cronut or five, I’m not your intern anymore.”), she had been on her way.

A fairly unusual way, through darkness and light, strange lights maybe, but then, Darcy wasn’t interested in the common sightseeing routes when she went for her recreational strolls. She tended to follow her intuition. It was one of her special skills.

Okay, Darcy would have loved if that special skill came with finding more comfy places, too. They could have done with a couch here.

The portal, a glittering crack in reality, led through a rocky cave into a light wood – whether it was a real forest or if it just lived in a particularly big and shamelessly magical cave, Darcy couldn’t say. The light here never changed, a placid blue-green glow wavering between the trees. There were the sounds of birds, although Darcy had never seen any, so maybe it was a tape, and the gurgling of a small stream filling a pond, which Darcy had indeed seen, accidentally stepped into, and ruined her brand new boots in once. That had been some months ago, when she had first discovered this place. She hadn’t been the only one.

“Hello, Snowball,” she greeted the scrawny, blue-and-dark-grey tomcat who rubbed his head against her leg. How he’d made it down here, only the cat gods knew.

“You are late,” a voice drawled behind her back. Darcy sighed. This place had recently developed the liveliness of a main station.

“And you are rude, arrogant and completely hopeless at rock-paper-scissors, but do you hear me complain?”

“We are _not_ playing that game again.”

“Better not, you make it way too easy,” she growled. Darcy was in a bad mood, not in _that_ bad a mood. She’d save rock-paper-scissors for a rainy day.

“Besides,” Darcy continued, taking a step forward and making Loki, who had tried to catch her in one of his what he believed to be a seductive embrace, trip into a shallow stream, “I’m tired, I’m hungry, and I’ve been taking care of my boss, your brother, your friend and your cousin all day, so you could at least ask me how they are – if you still can’t think of any reasons to ask me how _I_ am, of course.”

“Why would I? You always tell me yourself.”

Typical. After weeks during which they’d had to pretend to never having met before, Loki had nothing better to do than to display the charisma of a hay fork. Well, it explained his ridiculous helmet.

Not paying any attention to the cloud of fluttering, glowy-violet insects which had just decided to make Loki’s cape their new home, Darcy went over to a little clearing. She liked this spot, with its perfectly smooth pale boulders partly covered in light green moss and its blossoms of deep magenta that closed when touched. Letting herself drop into the thickest pad of moss available – she had checked – and lifting Snowball onto her lap, Darcy said:

“Jay is a little better by the way, she could walk through the house on her own today if someone helped her with the stairs. I wish the same was true for her depressions, she still blames herself for what didn’t happen.”

_She’s your perfect opposite_ , was what Darcy wanted to add, but didn’t. Again, she wasn’t in that bad a mood.

It couldn’t take long anymore though, for Loki said:

“And why would I ask about her?”

“Because technically all the latest stuff that happened to her was your fault?”

“Was not.”

“So was! And then you tried to –“

Apparently Darcy wasn’t the only one in a foul mood. Loki, finally rid of the glow-in-the-dark moth plague, towered over her in what only he thought to be an intimidating stance:

“Do not assume that you have the slightest inkling of these things. I do not enjoy the luxury of having romances with whichever wench tickles my fancy, I –“

“If you just called me a _wench_ , I’m gonna tickle you somewhere you won’t fancy!”

She wasn’t ready to admit it, but Loki rolling his eyes was a sight she’d have swapped for her last ten pounds of Halloween sweets. No, that was a lie. But he did look ridiculous enough to make it worth a candy bar or two.

“That’s enough, I’m leaving,” Darcy decided, getting on her feet and sending Snowball protesting to the ground. Nothing held her back – nothing except Loki’s voice.

“Do you not wonder why I have not been crowned officially yet?”

‘Course she did.

“’Course I don’t.”

Loki ignored her not particularly skilful lie.

“I will rephrase the question then – do you think I will still have the leisure to escape to this place whenever I wish, once I am king? Or that I feel particularly inclined to find a suitable wife within the designated time?”

“Why don’t you just not?” Was it obvious how much Loki’s endless self-pity about his terribly privileged life bored her? “If you don’t tie the shoe lace with the princess of the Milky Way, maybe you’ll be let out of the deal and you can be whatever you are now again.” A one thousand year old single who lived with his mother.

“Then a suitable bride will be found, whether it suits me or no.” Loki did not indicate whether the “it” stood for marriage or his future bride, as Darcy made sure to point out to herself. “My brother brought this over me when he rejected his position.”

Darcy shrugged coquettishly.

“You haven’t asked _me_ if I’d marry you.”

“ _You_?”

“Yeah, me,” she said, not coquettish at all anymore. “It’s no good manners to talk of marriage in front of one’s girlfriend and not mean her, you know?”

Well. Maybe she wasn’t his girlfriend. Maybe they’d never been anything that close. But she felt butthurt enough to show Loki what having a reason for being so looked like.

He scoffed.

“Darcy, you cannot possibly be serious.”

“I’m always serious. It’s my trademark expression. Darcy Serious Lewis, not Darcy Cheap Mistress For The Ad Break Lewis. Got that?” she snarled, tapping a finger against Loki’s chest.

“And how do you imagine that to work?” he asked, grasping her wrists uncharacteristically gently. “You live at my side for, what, fifty years, before you turn into a shrivelled prune? It was a mistake to get acquainted with you back when I had no obligations, but to marry you? To become a widower in a heartbeat? To outlive my own heir?”

“Yes, thanks for the lesson in xenobiology! Thanks a lot!”

Darcy turned on her heel and stomped away from the clearing.

“What do you believe I have done with my time,” she heard Loki shout behind her, “except for trying to find a spell, some piece of magic, some way – _anything_ – that would turn a human immortal?”

“You are _not immortal_ , you arrogant prick!” she yelled back.

She’d miss Snowball.

* * *

Poor Jay had a lot to deal with when they arrived on the roof of Stark Tower. They had travelled via Einstein-Rosen-Bridge again, to save her the experience of arm rest poker in transcontinental economy class – Jane’s suggestion, totally not made on her own behalf, of course. Still, skyscraper chic was clearly not Jay’s favourite environment, guessing from how she clung to Jane’s arm. A woman who introduced herself as Maria Hill saw them inside. Thor seemed to know her quite well.

“Welcome to Avengers Headquarters!” the master of the house greeted them. Jane had never met Stark before, and since the Arc magnet had been removed from his chest, he wasn’t a walking talking night light anymore either, but even if she had never seen him on TV screens everywhere and always, this was clearly Iron Man. His ego was at least two foot taller than him.

“Doctor Foster, finally!” he said when he shook Jane’s hand vigorously. “I’ve seen your work in Doc Selvig’s stuff, just amazing. You know that he…”

“Copies me?” Jane said. Playing with two Infinity Gems had tired her beyond all attempts of nicety.

“Badly, I’m afraid.”

“I’m not afraid,” Jane shrugged. “The incoherence of the theories in his papers stops being frightening if you don’t read them.”

She left it at that. After Ian’s call, there had been several e-mails from former co-workers telling her the same thing. Although Erik’s work hadn’t been published officially yet, it was already discussed as a new milestone in astrophysics. About that, Jane had received at least twice as many e-mails. She had preferred to reply to some of her mother’s instead, which should speak for itself.

Tony said hello to the others – slapping Thor’s back or at least trying to do so. To Jay he said with a wink:

“Thor’s cousin, huh? They didn’t feed you well enough.”

“That’s true,” Jay replied with a serious face. Jane heard alarm bells going off in her head: Tony couldn’t know, but the healers suspected Jay’s shortness and odd shape of limbs to have been caused by malnutrition and a lack of space to move during her first centuries of life, when she had been no more than a small dragon kept in a dungeon. Before anything else could happen, Thor quickly introduced Sif.

“Sit down, everyone,” Tony shouted through the large penthouse that was probably no more than one of many sitting rooms in the building. This one had a rather private atmosphere though, with bits and pieces of Tony’s technological tinkering lying around, a used glass of juice here, a bottle of hand lotion there.

“Steve’s not in the city this week, he’s out looking for a missing person – old friend of his,” Tony explained. “Some of the others are trying to help. Bruce should be up any moment though, he’s been busy rounding up his ex-girlfriend for you. A drink, anyone? We have the strong stuff, and we have the really strong stuff, also known as whole fat milk.”

Jane was about to ask for a cup of tea, but as Darcy wasn’t around to do the silly pranks, she opted for a glass of milk with the sole purpose of seeing the expression on Tony’s face. Thor didn’t have to ask before Tony handed him a beer – it had been evening when they had left, even if the time difference made it noon here – and another one to Sif, at the sight of her raised eyebrow. As they still weren’t sure what the digestion of half-dragons could deal with, Jay got some apple juice. She seemed happy with that.

They had just sat down when the elevator doors opened and two people stepped out. Tony introduced them as Bruce Banner and Betty Ross, both doctors.

Jane didn’t have much knowledge in this field, and maybe that was why she found the couple quite a sight to behold: Banner the fuzzy academic, his poise shaped like a question mark, Ross a tall goddess, soft-spoken and open to everything around her. Too bad they had broken up, Jane thought. In their oddity, the two looked like made for each other. Jane had a bit of experience there.

Bruce was expectedly shy when they were introduced, but Betty had no such troubles. She immediately grasped Jane’s hand and shook it vigorously.

“Doctor Foster, hi! I’ve read so much about your work, I wish I could see those other worlds, study their biosphere, you know, and –“

“Uhm – you can call me Jane?” Jane smiled awkwardly. They had to take Betty along next time they had an extended stay upwards. They _had_ to. Maybe Bruce would like it in space, too…

“Sure, okay, call me Betty,” the aforementioned beamed. She hopped onto the sofa next to Jane, showering her with questions about alien plants, none of which Jane could reply to before Bruce saved her with a simple:

“Betty…”

“What?”

Before Bruce could say anything, Betty had turned back to Jane.

“Would you believe this? He hasn’t talked to me in five years, not a postcard, nothing and then he just lurches up, says he’s got a friend who’s got a friend who wants to see me, and drags me to Stark Tower, of all places!”

“I know…” Jane rolled her eyes. “Mine was gone for almost three years, and he’s even been to Earth in between! As if SHIELD didn’t have a phone he could have used.”

“Right?”

Neither noticed how Bruce shot Thor a pleading glance, nor how the latter turned to Jay, silently mouthing the word “help” at her. Jay got up and walked over to Jane. With her best kitten face, the frail woman asked:

“Are you mad at me for taking so long to return to Earth, too?”

“No, kitten, of course I’m not mad at you,” Jane said, giving Jay a hug, the latter winking at Bruce and Thor over Jane’s shoulder. Tony tried rather too obviously not to bite his lips too strongly in the attempt of keeping back his laughter.

Before Jane could notice, the elevator door opened again and the lady of the house, the famous Pepper Potts stepped out, accompanied by no other than Colonel James Rhodes himself. If Jane had heard of someone, then that person was really, _really_ famous. These names filled her with awe, just as much as the fact that everyone seemed to know her, too, left her surprised.

“Ms Foster, hello!” Pepper Potts smiled. “It is great to meet you in person, Darcy has told so much of you.”

“Oh dear,” Jane smiled awkwardly.

“About time you got here,” Colonel Rhodes added, “Tony didn’t shut up about your work for about a week after your Darkelf stunt, and he never lost more than two sentences about Steve Jobs.”

“Those two sentences having been ‘Turtleneck sweaters are so 1974. Or was it 1975?’,” Tony said.

“Jane? Do you mind?” Betty smiled at her, gesturing at a sofa a little more removed where they could talk quietly. Jane tried to excuse herself from the others as politely as she could. She’d never been good at these things, but being the centre of attention at a party was a new and not entirely comfortable experience.

While Jane used the moment to tell Betty what she had come for, the others gathered on a large sitting arrangement in the centre of the room. Jane heard Thor and Sif tell them of the Infinity Gems, and as little of Jay’s story as needed to explain as to why she nodded off in between, leaning against Thor’s side.

“Sounds like a lack of energy. Been there. Done that,” Tony shrugged. Pepper rolled her eyes so audibly that Jane looked up.

“Tony, the Arc battery powered that magnet in your chest, not you yourself,” Rhodey grumbled. It was obviously not a sentence that was new to anyone.

This seemed to include Tony, who merely shrugged. “You can have one, if you want,” he added in Jay’s direction. Pepper snapped:

“Tony, no. _No._ ”

“Yeah, you’d love that, trademarking all aliens you can find for your company.”

“Come on, it’s just a tech update! Cyborg stuff, they probably have it all over their place.”

“They obviously don’t.”

Sif said coldly:

“We are not human, and neither are we machines to be meddled with!”

The tumult was abruptly silenced by a bright yellow light which, when it faded a little, revealed Jay in a queenly dress of otherworldly beauty. An illusion, Jane was sure, but an impressive one. Quietly Jay said:

“I am queen of two realms and princess of another. As such, I will decide what I require, and I thank you for your offer, Tony Stark, but I am convinced it is not of use to me.”

The spell faded immediately, and Jay sank into the cushions of the sofa bar all strength, but still awake. A slow clap from the other side of the immense room made Jane look over to where Maria Hill sat bent over a stack of official looking papers, almost completely obscured by natural shadows.

“Well done,” she said, “I thought those guys would never shut up.”

Jay managed a shy little grin, and Jane could not help but wink at her kitten with a proud grin on her face.

* * *

The way back was long and led through realms of wonder, places no sentient being may have seen for centuries, millennia, maybe never before… and yet they could not catch his attention when he walked that path, the one he had created. Fine lavender-coloured grass turned into leaves the shade of reddest wine, from silver rocks to perfect snow. Soon even this long journey, one he had not dreamed to make so often back when he had discovered it, would be over.

Something popped out of a snow drift to his left, startling him. It was the cat. Loki sighed.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, standing tall in front of the animal. The cat only crept closer, rubbing its head against his shins. He was aware that it was not a gesture of affection, but some way these beasts used to activate a gland mechanism of theirs. “This is not your world. Go back before the moss eats you.”

He did not jest. Loki had seen strange things in these caves.

“Fine. Do as you please.”

He walked past the animal, once more oblivious to matters turning out exactly the way he had wished them to be. When Loki went on, a small, bluish-grey shadow followed him.

Not once did he look down, and so it was not clear at whom the words were addressed when he said:

“It was for the best. You know that.”

Together they walked on, side by side. The king to be, and the cat who was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That scene with Darcy and Loki was a lot of fun, but also quite difficult, and I'm still not sure I got it right - the old Jane Austen conundrum, who is Pride and who is Prejudice? The cat wasn't planned either, he just walked in and didn't want to leave.
> 
> By the way, of course I'm always happy about positive feedback, but if you have any constructive criticism, I don't mind that either. It's a way to become a better writer.


	14. Chapter 14

They could have stayed at Stark Tower, but although Jane was sure that they had nicer rooms there than Lady Beatrice’s old town house, she felt too tired for spending the night in an unfamiliar environment. More importantly, it was better for Jay to get checked by the healers, and she didn’t seem too unhappy to return to her aunt. Sif did not fancy sleeping on a human couch either, and so Jane had given her their last spare key in case she wanted to visit again without having to enter through the roof terrace. At least Darcy would be there when they went back.

She did her best not to show it, but Jane felt rotten. It wasn’t just physical, although she hadn’t had her period this badly for decades, and it frustrated her. She should have felt great, right? They were about to get a real home, things were looking up family-wise, and she had finally had the chance to talk to Betty. Except all of these things were tainted: Thor didn’t speak with his mother, nor did anyone ever so much as mention Loki’s name, Jane felt so tired that the mere prospect of having to furnish and get used to a completely new house in a completely new place made her want to cry, science was more distant than ever, Jay was still not healed, they’d never all be together, Erik was an arse, Nick still hadn’t shown up again, she’d been mad at Thor because he’d had nothing better to do than being a total moron about Richard, and what she had asked Betty for made her so afraid that swimming with sharks in her current state would have been relaxing in comparison. Nothing but her fatigue prevented Jane from having a panic attack, and sticking to it, because those were so much fun.

“Come on, stay for lunch at least,” Tony tried when Thor announced with a gaze at his jetlagged ladies that it was time for them to leave. “It’s so boring with everyone gone, and we haven’t had a night out with everyone since – good God, since shawarma.”

Maria snarled:

“If you’re bored, I have a ton of paperwork here that’s only waiting for a superhero to take care of it. If you do it with your team, the more the merrier.”

“Go!” Tony hissed at Thor. The latter grinned:

“We will. Besides, it is time for dinner for us.”

“You’re cooking,” Jane said sleepily.

Bruce looked surprised.

“You cook?”

“I need to see that!” Tony smirked. “The kitchen is yours.”

Pepper seemed taken with the idea. “Yes, that’d be lovely!” she brightened. “If you don’t mind.”

Jane suppressed a groan. After having spent the last thirty minutes trying not to howl in pain because her abdomen had once more decided to be a complete douchecanoe, all she could think of was being able to lie down somewhere on her own, in the dark, with a big, fluffy blanket, after having spent another hour in the bathroom. Having one’s period wasn’t fun. The talk of food didn’t help.

“I’m honoured by your trust in my skills, but I’m sorry to say that I am not experienced enough in the culinary arts of humans yet to cook anywhere but at home,” Thor said.

“Which means you’ll have to visit us,” Jane said, looking Betty straight in the face. The other woman smiled warmly.

“Happily. And I’ll make sure to bring this rare plant,” she said, patting Bruce’s arm. The latter started visibly. With a side glance at Tony he grumbled:

“Come on, bring on the jokes.”

“Oh, I shall enjoy those all week,” Tony smirked.

“You lost track of what a week is in 1987,” Pepper said.

A short time later, they zapped back through space to drop off Sif and Jay before returning to their temporary home. Feeling as if she had just been drained of every droplet of energy, followed by a herd of tiny dinosaurs galloping through her belly and returning for an extra round over her back, Jane was so grateful for Thor carrying her into the house that for a moment she forgot about Darcy. That didn’t last long.

“Darcy?”

The sound of someone revisiting their breakfast rather noisily in the downstairs bathroom made Jane jump off Thor’s arms, wince at the pain this caused her strained muscles, and run upstairs to the facility of similar kind.

When she believed to have regained a bit of a grip on herself again, Jane wobbled out into the corridor, where Thor was just about to heave a very green-faced Darcy into her bedroom. Jane followed, helping to tuck in her friend and filling the empty glass of water. She wasn’t quite sure if water was a good idea on an empty stomach. Maybe tea was better?

“Will you two be alright for the moment, while I prepare some dinner?” Thor asked. From any other man, it would have sounded condescending. From any other man, Jane would not have understood this condescending attitude. She was more than grateful to have found a being who spoke her language.

“It’s okay, I’ll stay with Darcy.”

“I will make you some soup,” Thor said, leaving quietly. Jane sat down next to Darcy.

“So, what’s wrong? Are you sick?” she asked, trying to sound somehow caring. Jane _did_ care, no matter what countless so-called friends had thrown at her during the years. She just wasn’t very good at showing it, and estimating how much was okay. Seeing Darcy so miserable pained her so much that it left her helpless.

“Nope. Just a hangover. My own fault,” Darcy groaned.

“Hangover? Why?”

“From booze, obviously!” Darcy snapped, grimacing with what looked like a bad migraine.

“Do you want something against the headache?”

“Already took some. Takes a while to work.”

Feeling her stomach cramps take another round, Jane lay down on the pillow next to Darcy’s, trying to stretch the way Sif had shown her whilst taking the chance to look her intern in the clouded eyes.

“Darcy, what’s wrong?” she asked with what she hoped to sound careful. Caring. Caring was the right word.

“Nothing’s wrong, why? Can’t a woman go to a bar and finish their whiskey?” Darcy growled, burying her face in her pillow.

“Well, most women can’t.” And neither could most men. “But you don’t do that usually.” And she shouldn’t. Nothing was worth ruining one’s health in such a way.

“Maybe I was bored.”

“’Bored’ doesn’t make people deliberately turn themselves into zombies.”

Darcy threw herself around on the mattress, sending Jane flying up on her end.

“Okay, I broke up with a guy. Happy? God, never move in with a scientist, they never stop asking ‘why’.”

That surprised Jane – not so much the scientist statement, that she counted as a compliment.

“You broke up with someone? Who, Ian?”

“Who’s Ian?”

“Darcy…”

“A guy I’ve been with, okay?” Darcy snarled, covering her face with her arm. “Though we were never actually together, so it’s just someone I played the rabbit game with. Joke’s on me.”

Once again at a loss what to do, Jane reached out to awkwardly pat Darcy’s hair. There had never been much of a closeness between them, nor between Jane and anyone else, now she thought of it. Being semi-permanently attached to Thor had come so naturally that the oddness of the situation only occurred to her now. She really trusted him, didn’t she? Why was that thought so unsettling? Why should it not be?

Darcy didn’t say any more before their soup was brought up to them, together with tea and some fresh fruit, cut into little shapes of stars, cats and bunnies.

Balancing the tray on her knees, Jane couldn’t lean over to kiss Thor for the care with which he had prepared their food, so pretty and tasty that even Darcy couldn’t growl over it, so she just smiled gratefully at him and he smiled back. The soup was Heaven.

“The recipe is from a book I lent from the library,” Thor would tell her later, when Darcy had fallen into a light slumber so they could retire to their own bedroom. “I have to return it soon, but I noted down title and author. Maybe we could purchase a copy when we have moved into the new house, together with some other useful books. Would you mind?”

“No, not at all,” Jane said sleepily. She didn’t wonder why he was asking her for her agreement. She just loved him for doing it on a matter so small.

He lay down next to her.

“Maybe we could have a little library of our own. The public library is very useful, but it is easier to have some books around at all times. I try to memorise everything useful, but…”

“You don’t have to learn everything about Earth in a month’s time, you know?” Jane smiled, turning onto her side and reaching out to tenderly lay a finger against his nose. In the gloom, she could see him smile before he lifted his head to kiss the tip of her finger.

“I know that, but I still need to make progress. I can’t read your alphabet that quickly yet.”

“That’s okay. I’m not a quick reader either. Can’t concentrate. But just having books is nice. You know. For a home. They look nice, and…” She shrugged. “They’re home, I guess.”

Growing up the daughter of a literature professor was certainly not the reason as to why Jane felt so. Books, whether fictional or not, were worlds of their own. Bringing one into your house meant to bring that world into it, too. She remembered the discomfort she had always felt in her father’s study, packed with books she would never be able to finish, how those books had pressed on her mind and made her want to run away. Her own books had rendered her the refuge she had needed: textbooks on mathematics and astronomy mostly, and a handful of fantasy and science fiction novels her father had scoffed at whenever he had seen one of them. At some point, Jane had started to abandon her favourite reads. She hadn’t touched a single novel in her possession ever since her father’s death, and apart from the publications she needed for her work had only tried to read some of the books Darcy had thrown into her trailer so she wasn’t able to ignore them.

“Remind me to phone Mr Wen tomorrow, okay?” Jane said. “He’s e-mailed that the current owners are willing to sell as soon as any possible. They’re really happy to get the house off their hands.”

“It is an odd house. A good odd house.”

“Yeah, it’s great,” Jane grinned. That was something that cheered her up: that nothing whatsoever about this house was a drawback. The building itself, if it was one, would be fantastic to live in, and Mr Wen was such a nice man. She wouldn’t have volunteered to phone anyone else.

Then it hit her: they’d move into a house. Together. Hello, panic attack.

“We’re not doing this too quickly, are we?” Jane asked shakily.

Jane could almost hear Thor snap to attention, and it made the mountain of guilt in her mind tumble down all at once. Great.

“Does it feel too quick for you?” he asked. She could hear the tension in his voice, the suppressed anxiousness, and it made her cringe.

“No, that’s not what I mean!” Jane said quickly. “It’s just, you know… you told me how slowly your people do all this. Being together and… things… is this not too quick for you?”

She felt his hand take hers, still lying in front of his face. He could wrap his long fingers completely around hers, softly caressing her palm with his thumb.

“If it were so, I would not have suggested it.”

True. Stupid her.

“It’s just that…” Jane stopped. How was she supposed to say this? She had no idea how to express her worries even to herself. Couldn’t Thor’s mindreading skills take over for a moment? “It’s just that I don’t – I’m so bad at these things. Like, knowing what people feel like. I’m never sure. So if any of this isn’t going well for you, you have to tell me. Whenever there’s something – like, the thing about Richard, or – you gotta tell me. Yes?” she tried, feeling a shiver take over her whole body, one she could not suppress. She’d had this talk before. It had never gone well, if it had had any effect at all.

“I’m sorry about scaring Richard,” Thor said quietly.

“No, I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” Stupid period, too. “You couldn’t understand. But I’d never do that. Not being honest with you, I mean. I’m a terrible liar, really. You’d laugh if you saw me try.”

He had to believe her. She had forgiven him already, or at least she had grasped why Thor could only be confused about the stupid games of cheating and love roulette badly developed characters on TV played, and mistake them for realistic human behaviour. He had to learn that it wasn’t real. He had to learn that there were all kinds of humans, and that each and everyone, and Jane in specific, was different. She believed him capable of that, more than other humans.

“I’m just – you are so bright, so learned. I am afraid that I may seem slow-witted to you, or not capable of understanding you,” he said quietly.

“No,” she said. “Never. You’re the only one who’s ever bothered understanding me, and getting right so much, and you’re the only one who’s ever been asking, so don’t you ever stop. And you’re not slow. Far from it.” Shyly she closed her fingers around his thumb still lying on her palm. “Do you mind if I ask you questions sometimes, too? To make sure I understand you? I’m not good at understanding people, so there might be… sometimes I may be afraid to ask about something.”

“Anything. Whenever you want.” His face grew sneaky, sugared by his trademark smile. “Wake me up at midnight, ask me the next time a band of Marauders have me tied up at a stick over their camp fire, or when I wrestle a bilgesnipe for lunch.”

“Ouh, someone’s in a generous mood,” she grinned back. “But I won’t distract you from making lunch, meals are serious business.”

The smile stayed on his face, but under that he became solemn again.

“Is there anything you’d like to ask?” he said.

“Huh…”

Maybe there was something. Except it wasn’t easy to ask. But he’d said she could ask him anything, even if she was afraid of doing so, right? It was stupid, anyway. Being afraid. Being afraid was definitely stupid with this guy, although a habit that was really hard to lose with her past experiences with past guys… in the past.

“I don’t know if this is even a thing for you, but… do you want to… you know… some time?”

Dear God in Heaven, please let him know what she was talking about. Jane certainly wasn’t going to draw diagrams.

“Any time you like,” Thor smiled with a suggestive little wiggle of his left eyebrow. Jane breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, right now is a little bad,” she said.

“Are you still in pain?”

“It’s a little better.”

Much better, actually, but not so much on the physical side.

“Cuddle?” she asked coyly. With a chuckle, he helped her wiggle over and put his arms around her. He had stopped asking if they were too heavy for her. Jane loved his tight hugs, and right now, wrapped in a large sweatshirt and jogging trousers while lying pressed against Thor’s undoubtably solid, large body meant some welcome stretching and warmth for her sore belly as well. It was equally undoubtable that the man was downright perfect for her. Alien. In male shape. Yeah, that sounded about right.

“Do you want to know what I’ve asked Betty for?” Jane mumbled with her face pressed into Thor’s shirt.

“Is it something you want me to know?” he replied quietly.

“I don’t know.”

Maybe, just this once, she didn’t want him to know.

It wouldn’t have any positive outcome for him to learn that she had asked Betty, the doctor of all super heroes known to the world, to have a look at her DNA. Jane needed to know how quickly she was going to grow old. She would no longer stay passive about the prospect of having no more than a very optimistic five decades with Thor. She could have pretended that it was for his sake only, because being separated from her when her human life drew to its end would break his heart, again, and he didn’t deserve that. Which was true, and Jane did feel so. But she could be a shameless egocentric at times, too, and as such she knew that she would not give him back again. Not before they hadn’t had a fair chance together, and there was only one thing that was fair in life:

Science.

However, and just to silence her feeling of guilt, she made a mental note to take Thor book shopping tomorrow. For tonight, Jane would reveal another secret to him: where, two days ago, she’d hidden a jar of Nutella from Darcy’s merciless gaze-of-healthy-food.

“Uhm, sweetie? Would you mind reaching under the bed?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do not resume to drinking when you feel very bad! Make sure you find someone to talk to, a friend or a helpline at the very least. Take care!


	15. Chapter 15

Darcy didn’t hug people very often. She certainly kept her distance from Jane most of the time, for a number of reasons. Still, just this morning, she had almost cuddled her boss into zigzag shape.

It wasn’t only that Jane still felt bad about not telling Thor what she had asked Betty for, she also wanted to cheer up Darcy a little, and a shopping trip seemed like a good idea for all of them. Darcy hadn’t said any more about her mysterious ex-boyfriend, but that she hadn’t held back during their elaborate breakfast of pancakes, fantastic organic beef sausages from a deli Thor had found close by, and homemade cinnamon muffins spoke for itself. Just this once, Darcy didn’t complain that Jane ate unhealthily. Jane made a mental note to take Darcy shopping more often.

She wasn’t quite so convinced of that trick anymore once they wandered through the crowded shopping areas. The busyness, the noise, it stressed her out, and as most of the stores were completely uninteresting to Jane, they bored her terribly, too. She had told Darcy once, and to Jane’s surprise the intern had just nodded and refrained from asking to join her on shopping sprees again. Now Jane felt bad for not doing Darcy the favour any earlier. Great. As if she didn’t feel bad enough about half a dozen things already.

Either it was always so crowded here, or they had chosen a particularly busy day. Ignoring the voices in her head which told her that vanishing between the cracks in the plaster wasn’t actually going to happen to real people, Jane grabbed Thor’s arm and had herself pulled along over the sidewalks. They left the navigating to Darcy, who knew exactly where she wanted to go. Oddly enough, her aim turned out to be…

“Darcy? Why are we stopping at a park bench?”

“For the sight,” Darcy sighed dreamily, thumping down onto the bench not caring that an elderly lady had just wanted to park her purse-sized dog there (or maybe it was a purse looking like a dog, Jane didn’t want to know). Jane looked at the other side of the street, where the elaborate windows of exclusive designer stores glittered with a magic she couldn’t explain by science.

“I didn’t know that was your style…” she said. Darcy shrugged:

“It’d be my style if I could afford it.”

Jane exchanged a gaze with Thor. Moments later, they walked into the closest store, a completely flabbergasted Darcy between them.

It didn’t take her long to recover, and to try on pretty much everything the shelves held – or so it seemed to Jane, who sat cowering on a sofa in the large changing area, cursing herself for not having brought anything against the stinging headache she was developing, or something to read at the very least. Even so, she would not have been able to focus with all the voices, the motion and the rustling of fabrics around her, the background music that was so mainstream each song sounded exactly like the next except maybe not so bad anymore once it was over, and Darcy’s excited cheers whenever she was handed the next stack of t-shirts, blouses or skirts – often followed by a disappointed meowing when Thor gave his opinion. He was surprisingly picky.

This didn’t stop Darcy from getting all sorts of ideas about how to make Jane as miserable in wool as any possible though.

“Darcy, this is scratchy!”

“Who cares? You’re gonna look fantastic in it,” Darcy said, adding with a suppressed growl: “You look fantastic in everything.”

“Then put it on yourself, if you think it’s so easy to ignore!” Jane snapped back, crossing her arms so she didn’t have to touch the sweater Darcy was holding out for her. Besides, the thing was pink. _Pink_.

“Only if you like,” a gentle voice from her left said, shoving a small stack of more distinguishedly coloured clothes under Jane’s nose. With a dramatic sigh and look at Thor, she took it and vanished into a changing cabin.

It didn’t help that Jane had been tired for months, nor that it was the one time of one of said months during which she tended to be doubly exhausted. Simple changing shouldn’t have left her all dizzy and weak. Jane had to sit down for most of it, afraid to lose balance on her feet, and it took her a whole five minutes just to catch her breath when she was done. Only then did she step out to where Darcy waited.

“… so?” she asked when after a full ten seconds Darcy was still staring at her wordlessly.

“Uhm – boss – you should really let your boyfriend choose your outfits,” Darcy said, gaze still fixed on Jane’s clothes.

Turning to a mirror, Jane tried to see what Darcy saw: a simple, close-fitting shirt of some very soft, medium grey fabric, and a matching pencil skirt of a darker colour. Very plain, for she didn’t even wear shoes. Oh God, would they take her to a shoe shop, of all places? Maybe she could get a new pair of red wellies, hers was slowly falling into pieces. It’d look great with this skirt, Jane thought not at all snarkishly.

“Where is he, anyway?” she asked. Thor had vanished again, probably finding her the next workout in shape of a pile of fabrics. All she wanted was to get out of this skimpy stuff and back into her good old jeans and five protective layers of shirts and jackets.

“He should be – ah. There you go. Alien, prince, supermodel,” Darcy grinned, pointing at the cabin door opening behind Jane. When she turned this time, Jane’s breath was indeed taken away.

“Where does he work out?” she heard Darcy murmur.

“Our bedroom, after breakfast, when you sleep,” Jane replied automatically without taking her eyes off her boyfriend.

He wore a simple outfit of dark trousers and tight dark v-neck shirt, hair bound back as he did often these days. Jane had thought of the changing area as quiet before, but now she could hear everyone else holding their breath into complete silence.

“The coat, put on the coat!” Darcy wibbled.

He looked drop-dead gorgeous, as Jane had to admit without any trace of envy. Once more, she felt bad for not suggesting a shopping tour sooner. She should have thought of it, as it wasn’t very likely that Thor appreciated the narrow selection of second hand t-shirts and jeans Jane had kept in a musty suitcase for more than two years. He was still a prince, and more than that, one who had been raised in a world where Earth’s metaphorical silver spoon paled in comparison to their most base standard sets of cutlery. Whatever he liked about her, it must be very convincing indeed.

Wow. She was amazing at cheering herself up today. _Better look back at pretty Prince Charming in front of you_ , Jane thought. Yes, that was better indeed.

Thor’s gaze searched for Jane, and when he raised his brows in a questioning way, she quickly nodded her approval. Darcy urged him to add a half-length coat of deep, subtle red, no doubt a homage to his cape. Jane grinned when she saw Thor in it, partly because she understood the reference, partly because of entirely shameless boyfriend-pride. Too bad she couldn’t travel back in time and bring him to her prom. But then, maybe this was fate’s way of making up for its earlier failures.

“What do you say?” Thor asked her quietly, with a little smile on his lips. “Is this suitable for Earth?”

Jane nodded again. She’d have liked to say more, but her fatigue was intensifying and she didn’t want to ruin the day for her little family. She felt Thor gently take her hand and looked up as he stepped closer to her.

“Would you like to go home?” he said softly, so nobody around could hear them.

“It’s fine, I just… a little break would be nice. I’ll just get changed, hold on.”

Thor nodded at her outfit.

“Forgive my erroneous choice, one should not hide such beauty behind all that grey, I see that now.”

Against her will, this made Jane laugh, and she was glad for she also felt a deep blush crawl all over her face and up to the roots of her hair. So much for “all that grey”.

“Nah, you’re right. Dust bunny coats are so out of fashion,” she said, sticking out the tip of her tongue at Darcy, who returned the gesture.

“Maybe you should try some blue, it would go well with your eyes…”

“Yeah, next time.”

As Darcy wasn’t done yet, neither in having a complete fashion tour for herself, nor with bouncing back and forth around Thor while he chose his wardrobe update, Jane retired once more onto the sofa farthest back, nodding off once in a while and dreaming of a world where clothes were comfortable and chocolate the base substance of life.

The best thing about it was that the sweet little kiss on her cheek which Thor woke her up with made it into the dream for just another moment. On these conditions, Jane was just so inclined to wake up. Just so.

“We should go home,” Thor said.

Jane looked behind him, at Darcy’s face on which worry mixed with disappointment.

“No, no, it’s okay! I’m fine. Are you done? Where do we go next?”

“Actually…”

With an apologetic smile that looked more afraid than polite, Darcy pulled out a flower-printed dress from behind her back. Jane sighed.

“Just that one?”

“ _Actually_ …”

Of course it wasn’t just that one dress. With the face of Jeanne d’Arc in her last hour, Jane stepped back into the changing cabin, taking with her not even half the things Darcy had wanted her to try. Yes, the dress looked good, and it wasn’t quite as unpractical as the skirt-outfit, and sure, the soft trousers Thor had found her fit perfectly, and true, she did enjoy his hands lying on her waist when he said the shirt would be much better once properly fitted to her size… but Jane had principles.

They left the store with several bagfuls of clothes for all of them, including a cocktail dress Darcy just couldn’t pass, and almost one for Jane, too, hadn’t she pretended to faint into the arms of the dummy wearing the dress because of that not quite so unpractical fatigue. On their way out, Darcy voiced her regret that they there weren’t any good second hand shops around.

“It’s much more of an adventure when you don’t know how many elephants have tried on a shirt before you,” she proclaimed. Jane didn’t have the heart to tell her that the most likely number resembled zero.

During their lunch at a café that served modern interpretations of dishes from all over the world, rolled into wraps or in shape of subways, Darcy kept giving out business cards to everyone gawking at them, and the handful of fans who asked for autographs. Before leaving, Jane suggested to have some more of the truly tasty sandwiches prepared as takeaway for later – which meant ten minutes, the time they needed to find a nice spot in the surprisingly warm sun of early noon. Thor was clearly more comfortable when he didn’t have to show the effects of his super fast alien metabolism, such as munching triple servings in one and the same sitting, with so many humans around. Outside, sitting on the side of a fountain, Darcy happily helped him blend in with a second big wrap of awesome in her hands (not for long), while Jane nibbled one of the cookies they had added for puddings. Darcy offered to assist her as well. Jane turned away to put another cookie on top of her first and gobbled down both at once.

The sun and the food did their job, and Jane was about to fall asleep leaning against Thor again.

“Okay, boss, not funny. We should go home,” Darcy woke her. Jane growled.

“No, we haven’t been to any bookshops yet!”

“Jane –“ Thor started, but Darcy interrupted him:

“Okay, _one_ bookshop. That one, because it’s close,” she said, pointing at the other side of the square, where a large chain store beckoned to hungry readers. Jane didn’t mind so much. They were looking for a lot of different books, and although she was all for supporting small businesses, the chances of finding most of what they were looking for were bigger here.

She didn’t tell Darcy that their bookstore visit wasn’t about her being in need for a read, but then Jane wasn’t willing to admit her true motives of trying to give Thor more of an at-home feeling either. Besides, the mere presence of so many books felt like balm on her sore soul. Maybe that was something she had indeed inherited from her father. For once, that thought felt nice.

They lost Darcy when she discovered the store’s stationery department. Jane herself had a hard time not to stop for all the beauty there, the paper and the colourful notes and all the pretty pens. But they’d have time for that later, or any other day. Priorities, priorities.

Practical and therefore lazy as she was, Jane had had the genius idea of stuffing Thor’s receipts from the library into her pocket before they’d left the house. Now they could check which books he wanted to buy a copy for his own. It was a funny mix of topics he had there: cooking and history, geography and home repairs, mathematics, astronomy, and the one or other book on how to improve one’s English. Together they narrowed down the list to which titles they thought useful, and while Thor set out to happily seek for his treasures, Jane guarded their quickly growing hoard of printed paper on one of the store’s sofas, leisurely flicking through the pages of one book or the other.

There wasn’t a single work of fiction on their shopping list. It didn’t surprise Jane, for Thor had explained to her that his people had no concept of such literature, or other media of entertainment. The closest they knew were tomes of philosophic metaphors and ancient legends, so glossed over there wasn’t much truth in them anymore, but no stories that had been thought up for the sake of storytelling itself. It was something he still had slight problems to understand, especially when they were watching television. Jane thought it high time her cuddle alien learnt to grasp the concept of a well-written novel.

Their sofa stood in the back of the store’s second floor, quiet enough and surrounded by the shelves carrying novels of fantasy, science fiction, history and other genre literature. Jane had decided that something so obviously invented would be easiest for Thor to understand, more than a thriller or some high literature – and more fun, too.

“Can I bring these back for you?” a store assistant asked, pointing at the towering stacks of books surrounding Jane.

“No, no, that’s okay. We take these,” Jane said with a smile that tickled her ears. She had sneaked in some more books on astronomy, simply because she could, and had found one of her all-time favourites: a publication on gravity, the book that had first kindled her interest in Einstein-Rosen-Bridges. Yup, she wanted this one.

Thor returned a moment later, empty-handed.

“They don’t have any copies of ‘The Garden Kitchen Through The Year’. I was told it could be ordered, but I thought it better to have the book delivered once we have moved into the new house. Was that a good decision?” he asked, audibly pushing the words around in his head before pronouncing them. Jane knew that feeling well enough herself.

“Yeah, perfect, good idea!” she hastened to say, making space for Thor on the sofa. Feeling her smile return, she placed the book she had read on both their knees and, flipping back to the beginning, started to tell him how she had discovered this book once.

“So this book is the reason for which we met,” Thor said with a quiet smile when Jane had finished explaining a diagram that showed the first depiction of a wormhole she had ever seen. She was still searching for an answer when she felt his lips gently touching hers, and gratefully responded to the kiss. Something clicked.

“If this picture doesn’t guarantee the next half a million followers for my blog, something’s definitely wrong with this world,” Darcy said, pushing her phone back into her pocket.

Jane grinned back.

“If that one doesn’t turn out well, we can repeat that kiss.”

* * *

With all their heavy shopping bags, they had to take a taxi back home – although not so much because Darcy and Thor couldn’t perfectly divide the burden between the two of them. Heavens, Darcy didn’t doubt that Thor could easily have balanced their finds together with herself and Jane on his arms. No, it was because of Jane, who insisted on holding at least _one_ of the books… and then promptly ran out of strength as soon as they had left the sofa. Being no less stubborn, she had insisted on not being carried on top of a stack of jumpers.

Oh well. Darcy gave her little boss some leeway for not having thrown a frustration tantrum about having to leave her cave for the real world hours earlier, and besides, Darcy had been gifted more things than ever before in her life, as far as she could remember. Also, it wasn’t as if she didn’t appreciate being driven around. Smart women prove they could walk on their own, clever women got themselves a chauffeur.

After all, it had been an exhausting day, despite the extra biscuits, and that they’d had tea, coffee and cream cake in the book shop’s own café – surrounded by several baskets of books, a handful of people who had very politely asked for autographs (Jane assuming every time that only her superhero boyfriend was meant, and then turning into a lobster-red mess when she had to grab the pen, much to Thor’s amusement), and two store-owned cats who technically weren’t allowed on café floor, but who, to nobody’s disagreement, developed an unholy liking for their table. Darcy had loved it all: books, a bagful of pretty new notes and pens for herself, one cat per lap, sweets, friends, even the pleasant rain outside. She’d have preferred snow, but then, one couldn’t have everything. Rain fit better with book places.

Lost in musings whether she should ask Jane if she could borrow her super alien for another shoe shopping spree, Darcy hurried out of the cab and through the door Jane held open for her. While Thor brought their bags upstairs, Jane following him for the bathroom as she had done pretty much every ten minutes this day (How could one be such a mimosa about having one’s period?), Darcy ventured for the kitchen. All she wanted from this day was a chance to put up her feet and sip a nice hot chocolate, even if they only had the instant stuff. She had been spoilt so much today, she’d be stern but finally gracious about this one point.

It was when she saw the light under the kitchen door at which Darcy had the notion that, after all, she may just not be rewarded with her nice, quiet evening. It was when she opened said door and saw the person who had switched on the lights that her inkling was confirmed.

“What are _you_ doing here?”

“And a good evening to you, too, Lady Darcy of Earth,” snarled Loki.

Darcy briefly considered turning around, switching off the kitchen lamps and leaving. Then she became aware of the other person in the room.

“Jay, for Heaven’s sake!”

The little dragon lay curled up on the kitchen bench, wrapped into some sort of large, green blanket – unmistakably Loki’s fashion sense.

“She insisted on walking without my help and –“

“Fainted, yeah. That’s half-dragons for you.”

Darcy quickly checked Jay’s pulse and breathing. Faint as a little bird’s, as usual.

“Put the kettle on,” she said in Loki’s direction. “Why are you here?”

“My cousin was not well, in ways the healers could not treat. My queen decided it would be better for her to be with you.”

Wow. Someone had left the coat hangers in their shirt, judging by how stiff this conversation went.

“Is she depressed again?” Darcy asked. “As in, really sad? Crying a lot, stuff like that?”

“I cannot say.”

Typical. His cousin was sick, and the moron had nothing better to do than – whatever he did all day. Sulking in a corner and gluing together his fragile ego, most likely.

“And they sent you because what? Are there no more of you super aliens? Where _is_ everyone, partying on Saturn? Where’s Sif?”

Loki chose only to reply to the last of her four questions:

“She has left for a journey to another galaxy, the detail of which she did not confide to me.”

“Partying, told you. Tea is in the cupboard behind you, left door. Five spoonfuls.”

Ignoring Loki’s clueless face as to what she was talking about, Darcy sat down on the kitchen bench and pulled Jay onto her lap so the dragon lay a little softer.

“Wake up, kitten.” It was a nickname Jane had come up with, but as Darcy was quite sure that Jay wouldn’t be too happy about an epithet of the reptile genre, she kept it. “You’re gonna miss how I make Loki cook dinner,” she told Jay. “Don’t worry, we’ll order takeaway. I just wanna see him in a kitchen apron with gravy all over his hair.”

Loki did not have the chance to reply to her suggestion of how to improve his hairstyle, for a moment later the kitchen door opened and Thor entered.

“What are you doing here?” the grizzly-sized alien growled with hints of his old weather habits in his voice. Darcy wished she’d had some popcorn. This was going to be fun.

“He has indeed adapted to your language very well,” Loki sneered in Darcy’s direction.

To the latter’s chagrin, the situation was interrupted by the kitchen door opening once again, with a very tired-looking Jane tottering into the room.

“Oh, hi,” she cheeped feebly in Loki’s direction before falling onto the half-a-seat still vacant on the kitchen bench. Thor gave Loki an unceremonious shove away from the cupboard holding the tea box and started to prepare the beverage. Jane, looking as motivated as a zombie in a seminar about laundry pin collecting, reached out for the pack of biscuits on the table, taking two for herself, putting a handful in front of Darcy, patting Jay’s hair and slumping back onto her seat as if the gesture had cost her the last bit of strength she’d had – which was most likely the case. Darcy made sure Jane was eating her biscuit before she turned back to her entertainment from outer space.

“Loki brought Jay, she’s not okay again and there was nobody else doing the deliveries tonight.”

At least she hoped it was night where Loki had left. The days on Sparkly Place were slightly longer than those on Earth, meaning that the worlds tended to be out of synch more often than not. Seasons were a complete mess.

“I see,” Thor said curtly, setting a handful – which was a lot, thanks to the size of his hands – of tea mugs down onto the counter with just enough force to make them clang without breaking. Jay winced. Great, now those two roosters-in-a-hen-party hade woken her up, too. It was all Loki’s fault, Darcy was convinced of that. It was a law of nature.

“Shush, sweetie, everything’s okay, it’s just –“

The sound of the doorbell, audible even over the noise the boiling kettle made, interrupted Darcy. Before anyone could stop Jane, which was sad given how slow she was, the tiny woman said “I’m going,” and vanished out of the kitchen.

Thor stopped the water kettle. The awkward silence that followed was not improved by the squeal they heard from the hallway, audibly Jane’s, nor that she seemed to have jump-hugged their visitor.

“I’m so glad to see you! Are you alright?”

Darcy had already recognised the deep voice answering before Jane brought their visitor into the kitchen: Nick Fury, for once not looking like he had just challenged “The Matrix” in coolness (and won), but none the less _très chic_ in a distinguished suit and winter coat. He waved a hello at everyone before noticing Loki.

“What is _he_ doing here?” he asked Jane. Loki looked at his brother:

“Is this a human idiom?”

Everyone ignored him, for now Nick had accepted a seat at the kitchen table, briefly asking for Jay’s state of health, and then telling them that he had helped Mrs Blonski with moving into her new flat in G. Street.

“She was so happy about her pink sitting room that she told me to invite Sally and Dean over for tea next Saturday. Is anyone of you Sally or Dean?” he asked. Everybody shook their head. “Besides, you’ll want to call me Peter when she’s around. Apparently I’m her grandson.”

“I’m Dean,” Darcy grinned.

“We wanted to visit tomorrow anyway, we’ll look after her,” Jane interrupted before any more parts in the play could confuse her.

“Maybe you should take a break from baking though,” Darcy said. She didn’t like how pale Jane looked, although those two biscuits seemed to have restored her ability to walk. “Or let us –“

Ending sentences was not something fate granted Darcy this night. Before she could suggest to take some work off Jane’s small shoulders, a cacophony of coloured lights drowned out the kitchen lamps. Someone from Sparkly Place had arrived.

This time nobody bothered to get up, and it wasn’t necessary, for they heard the front door being unlocked with a spare key – undoubtedly the one Jane had given Sif. A moment later, that impression was confirmed by the very one walking into the kitchen. Not alone, however.

Sif nodded a quick greeting at everyone, then directed their attention to the tall, athletic woman of a brilliant green complexion standing next to her.

“Her Highness, Princess Gamora of Zen-Whoberi,” Sif said simply. Only then did she notice Loki. “What are _you_ doing here?”

Loki turned around and ever so calmly whacked his forehead against a cupboard door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I were better at slapstick, it's so much fun to write.


	16. Chapter 16

“Are you feeling any better?” Sif asked, one hand on the brick-sized container in which she still carried the Aether, one of the six legendary Infinity Gems.

“Yeah, thanks,” Jane lied. She felt more energised, but also all the more aware of how much she wanted her Space Jam back. She’d always liked cherry flavour best.

While Thor took care of their dinner and Loki downstairs, Sif had withdrawn with Jane to see if she could do anything about that dreadful fatigue, with Nick accompanying them because he’d looked so worried and Jane couldn’t say no to that puppy glance. Darcy and Princess Gamora, of all people, had brought Jay to the upstairs bedroom.

“You know, maybe we could train this,” Jane said. “I don’t know if it’s just coincidence, but I don’t feel the urge to have it back so strongly anymore. Maybe we could try to train this, so I can control it.”

“Control an Infinity Gem?” a voice asked from the door. The princess stood there.

A surprised smile crept on Sif’s face. “Yes. Jane Foster, the human who was host to the Aether and responded with no more than a nap.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Jane growled. To her surprise, Gamora replied:

“I have felt the influence of yet another Gem. Sif is not exaggerating.”

“Jane, what else have you not told me?” Nick asked.

“Well, maybe it’s a human thing.” Jane wasn’t in the mood to discuss right now, nor to justify herself for not instagraming her adventures with alien miasma. “Can we try again?”

“Later,” Sif said. She stood, her hand shortly brushing Gamora’s ever so slightly outstretched arm when they left the master bedroom, Jane trailing behind them.

“So you’re carrying three Gems now?” she asked, briskly feeling Nick’s hand pat her shoulder. She was about to forgive him for being so inquiring – old habits died hard – had he brought chocolates. That’s what you did when you visited people, especially if two thirds of them were female. And if fifty percent of those two thirds were a Darcy, you brought the triple amount. Mathematics were so simple, why did so many people complain?

“Yes,” Gamora answered with a sly smile. “One was mine, although my previous partner would see that differently.”

“Ouh, ex-boyfriends, huh? I’ve so been there.”

“Not where he was when I made clear I did not want to see him ever again,” Gamora sighed.

She led the way to the other room on the floor, where Darcy sat on the bed with Jay curled up on her lap. The dragon had been crying again, which had been the reason why they’d decided to bring her upstairs in the first place, and she hadn’t recovered yet.

“Hello, Jay,” Gamora said, sitting down on the side so Jay could see her. “Why are you sad?”

Jay shook her head, sobbing into the pillow.

“Do you not know or can you not say?”

“Don’t know… how to say.”

“What makes you feel sad?” Darcy asked.

“Everything?” Jay tried. Against her will, Jane felt a sad smile on her face. She knew that feeling, too. “That… that it doesn’t get better.”

“Getting better doesn’t happen so quickly, and sometimes there’s drawbacks before it can happen.”

“But you all try so hard and – and – it doesn’t get better. It gets worse.”

Darcy asked:

“Do you know why?”

“Because I’m evil,” Jay whispered hoarsely. “Everyone says so. I’m evil, I bring the end of the world.”

Gamora looked up questioningly, but Sif only gave nod.

“That didn’t happen though,” Jane tried. “That was the Infinity Gem in you. You were very brave, and very strong, you got away from it instead of giving in. You’re not evil at all, you’re very, very good. A real heroine.”

“But it’s been prophesied. Even here, on Earth. They said I was the Devil’s daughter, the Antichrist, and that I bring the end of the world.”

“That was ages ago,” Darcy replied. “That belief only came up in the Middle Ages, and it’s more legend and myth than actual religion. Some humans saw you in your dragon shape and mistook you for a demon.” Feeling the others’ attention on her, Darcy added: “There’s a lot of humanoid reptile figures in mythology all over the world, and I think they’re dragons or half-dragons, too. You have the Naga for example, or the Quetzalcoatl… European demon figures are a mix of dragon and humans, too, and I think it’s just… aliens mistaken for deities again.”

To Darcy’s visible relief, Gamora nodded, covering Jay’s hand with hers.

“I was raised a demon once, too. But it made me sad, like you. So I decided to not be a demon any longer. That decision is all yours, and I believe you have already made it.”

Jay nodded, and the pressure in the room lightened by about a gazillion bar. Remembering her part as lady of the house, Jane asked Gamora and her other guests whether they wanted to return downstairs for dinner. If the kitchen was already too small, Darcy’s cramped guest room would hardly suffice for all of them, and besides, they had another princess visiting. The number of crowns between these walls would have made Lady Beatrice swoon. Jane’s outfit of three hooded shirts, threadbare jeans and a messy ponytail… not so much.

While Nick led Gamora downstairs, manners pitch-perfect as if he’d never been anywhere outside a Renaissance court, Jane knelt down next to Darcy and Jay. She helped the half-dragon to a sitting position and stroked her cheek.

“Do you want to come downstairs?”

“Tired…” Jay said with a face that broke Jane’s heart. Alright.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and took Jay into her arms, gently rubbing the alien’s bony back.

“Everything’s okay, and you’re gonna be fine, too, one day. Okay?”

Jane felt the gentle flash of energy between them more through Darcy’s flabbergasted hiss than that she knew what she was doing.

“… boss? You okay?”

“Magic transfer.” She’d save Darcy the quantum physics. To Jay she said: “Bit better?”

“Bit. Thank you.”

Jane gave the half-dragon a smile before Darcy led their patient out of the room. Finally able to give in to her fatigue, Jane leant back, looking up at Sif.

“Sorry,” she said.

Sif shook her head, once more reaching for the pouch at her belt that held the Infinity Gems:

“Typical.”

* * *

As far as Jane could say, dinner had been a success – or at the very least it hadn’t been a complete disaster. The food had turned out splendid, thanks to Thor’s culinary skills, their generous grocery supplies and Loki’s vow not to magick a cupful of pepper into the main course; conversation had stayed polite, except for the one incident where Darcy had asked Gamora what it was like to have champagne corks pop in zero-gravity space and nobody had wanted to explain which bottles she’d been talking about; and the number of food items thrown at anyone had stayed at zero. It definitely helped that Loki hadn’t brought his helmet, for even Jane felt the urge to stack donuts onto those horns. Mm. Donuts.

Jay looked much better during their evening, she ate hungrily and, although staying silent, seemed much more awake than before – until she dozed off, anyway, leaning against Thor’s shoulder. As this time Jay’s sleep was one of a lighter heart and a sufficient meal, he carried her upstairs to bed without bothering to wake her. Jay could do with a good night’s rest.

Sadly for her, it also meant that she missed how Sif and Gamora left. They had taken the moment for signal that it was time for them, as well. After they had said their goodbyes to everyone and promised to visit the new house as soon as possible, Gamora pulled something flat and metallic out of her pocket.

“A communicator, to keep in contact with my ship. Intergalactic distances may be a little too much for its sensors, but we plan to stay within this nebula for a while.”

Too flabbergasted to bring out a single word of thanks, Jane received the small device as carefully as if it were made of Erik’s ego – extremely fragile and prone to crack.

“Congrats, you’ve just broken Jane,” Darcy grinned, perplexing Gamora.

“What? I didn’t –“

“You mentioned a spaceship and she didn’t even notice.”

Jane’s head jerked up.

“Can I take this apart?”

“You are meant to use it to speak to us,” Gamora said.

“Yes, but…”

Sif interfered:

“Jane likes technology. She studies and develops it, so humans may one day cross space, too.”

“We _can_ travel through space. Just not very far yet,” Jane pouted. Gamora was already digging in her pockets again, finally coming up with another communicator.

“I’m afraid this one is broken…” she said, stopping at the sight of Jane’s eyes turning perfectly round and glittery. “But you can have it for your studies, if it is of any use to you.”

“Really?” Jane croaked. Technology as advanced as this could explore parts of space they’d never have dreamt to see in a life time – and in real time. Even if she could just find out how the –

“Careful, the next time you see this thing, it’s able to play a customised ring tone while it bakes star maps into your toast,” Darcy grinned. Gamora did not quite understand. Sif just rolled her eyes and shrugged at her questioning glance. Nick had visible trouble to suppress a grin, and Jane blushed, scowling at Darcy. The toaster incident had been a singular occurrence.

The awkward silence that followed was broken by Thor coming down the stairs to bid farewell to their guests, and a moment later, Sif and Gamora stepped out of the front door. Darcy asked:

“So, will you be around for – oh. So that’s how you came here.”

When Jane looked up, she understood that the lights they had seen at the two women’s arrival had not been the side effects of a wormhole, but cast by a very real, rather large spaceship. It currently hovered over the house, blinking peacefully and noiselessly into the night. No more than a thin cable tied it to the topmost chimneys. It looked almost cute, like an oversized balloon on a piece of string swaying softly in a gentle wind.

“Excellent parking,” Jane said to Gamora. All she could hope for was that her mother wouldn’t hear of this.

* * *

As the evening was far from over, Jane couldn’t have been more grateful for Gamora’s travel route and Sif’s idea to stop by for dinner. She felt exhausted, but not to the usual level of grinding fatigue that had become an everyday occurrence by now. At least Jane was positive that she’d make it to bed on her own feet tonight – but until then it was still a long way to walk.

Darcy and Thor went upstairs to clear away their shopping bags and make sure Jay was okay, while Jane found herself left to look after the kitchen. Uh-oh. Three academic degrees had not included any practical advice on how to handle a room filled with Nick Fury and a Loki in full sulk, and Jane did consider writing a complaint about that.

Well. It couldn’t be postponed any longer.

Pushing open the kitchen door, she found her two guests caught in a staring match. Phew. That could have gone worse.

“You okay?” Jane asked with so much faked verve that it almost made her trip forward and fall into the sink. Risky, because they didn’t have any fishing rods to get her out again, as Darcy tended to remark.

“Perfectly,” Nick said, standing up and casually stretching out a steadying arm for Jane, which she gratefully caught. “I was just about to go, too. It was a surprise seeing you, Loki, and that you’ve used shampoo this time,” he added in direction of the kitchen table. Jane pushed Nick quickly behind the kitchen door, so it could block the green-glittering spell that shaped Loki’s reply.

“Do you have a place to stay?” she asked quietly when they stood in the hallway. “There’s a couch here that nobody ever seems to want although it’s by far the most comfy piece of furniture in the house.”

Nick laughed.

“Thanks, but I’m good. Looking for a more permanent situation to spend retirement at though.”

“Retirement?” Jane asked in surprise. “So you’re not…”

“Having good night calls with Phil Coulson? Oh no, don’t you worry,” Nick grinned. Jane knew better than to take his word for granted, but she liked him too much to pin him down on his word.

“Oh, I almost forgot – we’re going to move away, too. I’ll let you know the –“

“I know, I have your new address.”

Jane grunted: “You and retirement? My ass.”

She stood on her toes to give Nick a hug, a common occurrence in the tiny existence of Jane “Thumbelina” Foster, before he opened the front door.

“I’ll be around,” he said.

“Lunch on Sunday the week after next, at the latest,” Jane said determinedly enough to have Nick reply with a mocking salute. Then he vanished into the night.

Sighing, she went back to the kitchen.

Somehow she had expected Loki to fiddle with a phone or read something, but obviously aliens didn’t feel boredom the way humans did. He simply sat in the corner of the kitchen bench, staring at who-knew-what. Sadly, not a single small talk guide Jane had ever considered (amounting to a whole two point three pamphlets) had covered the topic of talking to super mad space goats. Wait. Wasn’t she the goat? They had something in common after all!

“Do you want a cup of tea?” Jane asked, remembering that she wanted one. One always wanted tea. It was a law of nature, and she would find out whether it applied to other solar systems, too.

“No, thank you.”

She poured two cups and put one down in front of Loki. He glared, so she shrugged:

“I wasn’t sure if you meant it.”

“Because they call me a liar?”

“Because I’m bad at detecting irony sometimes. And lies. If you want something from me, tea, ice cream, I’m afraid you’ll have to tell me straight forward, ‘cause I’ll not get the hints and you won’t get any tea or ice cream. Sorry about that.”

Before Loki could reply, the kitchen door opened and Darcy lurched in with the air of a single woman having to make sure space and time kept existing all on her own.

“Oh. Tea now, Jane? Really?” she asked, nodding at Loki’s cup. The latter made sure to take a sip very pointedly at Darcy’s remark. Jane didn’t get it.

“Why? He’s a guest, you offer a cup of tea to guests,” she said, once more feeling like the epitome of eloquence.

“Got it, Shelda Cooper,” Darcy replied before turning back to Loki. “Why are you still here?”

Even Jane knew that this wasn’t going according to the book. How was she supposed to make any sense of interstellar conversation if nobody kept playing according to the book? Nothing but frustrating it was.

“Because _he’s a guest_ , Darcy,” she snapped. “Guests can stay as long as they like.”

“Cool, have fun, you two,” Darcy shrugged. “I’m out. Going for a walk.”

Jane frowned at the closing kitchen door before glancing back at Loki.

“Last time I saw you two together, Darcy didn’t try to bite your heels. What happened?”

“As little as it is your business, it suffices for you to know that Darcy wasn’t quite content with my efforts of courting her patient,” he snarled. “Unsuccessfully, I should add.”

Against her will, Jane’s suppressed giggle came out as a snort.

“You tried to propose to _Jay_?”

“I am not –“

“You need to find a queen and Jay is one, yeah, I know,” Jane interrupted. She couldn’t even begrudge him for doing so, he was acting on duty after all. “But seriously, you two don’t fit. You’re gonna be married for a whole long time, if everything goes well, so try to find someone you can like. That’s not easy, I know.”

To her surprise, Loki was serious when he asked:

“Is that what you did?”

“No, but I wasn’t looking anymore. A completely different situation.”

He nodded in all earnestness before visibly remembering where he was – and rising onto his feet immediately, his head almost knocking against the ceiling. Why were all these aliens so terribly tall? No wonder Jay felt left out. Jane made a mental note to look for some plateau boots with her.

“It is time, I will no longer stress your hospitality,” Loki said with a voice void of expression, which Jane took as his equivalent of friendliness, “and I thank you for it.”

Wow.

She saw him out before heading upstairs, where everything had gone quiet. As Darcy’s coat wasn’t hanging from its peg anymore and Jay slept – hopefully – only one more person was awake in the house. Jane found him in their shared bedroom.

“Wow, this room hasn’t been so tidy since forever,” she said when she walked in. “The next time we need to clean the house, I’ll make sure your brother stays the whole day so you can avoid him in the other rooms as well.”

Thor looked a little miffed at the remark, and very caught, so Jane rose to the tips of her feet in order to plant a kiss on his cheek. Still, he had to bow down for her.

“I am sorry for leaving you alone with him,” he said.

“It was okay.”

At that, Thor raised a questioning eyebrow. Jane snarled:

“Well, I talked to him.”

“And you think I did not try that in the past?”

Ouch.

“Sorry, honey. My bad.”

She should have apologised in full. If there was someone who hadn’t given up on Loki until the very end, it had been Thor. Sadly, it was Jane who had to say these words, and as usual, not a single one would leave her mouth. In equally common Jane manner, she wrapped her arms around Thor’s middle, leaning face-first against him.

“The problem’s just that Loki is going to be king, and right now, nobody wants to be his friend. I don’t think that’s such a good combination, I mean, it’s not like he’s ever shown the slightest hint of regretting anything he’s done.” Spiralling into that waterslide of thought, Jane added: “If he feels anything at all, then he’s probably very lonely.”

She felt Thor’s hand caressing her cheek and looked up.

“The matters you ponder about…” he said.

“I’m a scientist. Comes with the job description.”

That made him smile, but it didn’t last long.

“Would you say that I should talk to him?”

Jane let out a deep breath, her nervousness levels rising by the second.

“Maybe not now if it’s still too raw for you, but… some day. It’s Loki. We should have known he’d try to perform a vanishing act somehow.”

She leant back against Thor once more, closing her eyes in relief when she felt his embrace tighten. He started to rub her back, but it seemed absentminded.

“Isn’t there anyone else he trusts besides you and your mom? Some best friend?” Jane asked.

“Our friends –“

“A friend of his own. Someone who’s more his friend than yours.”

The following silence was answer enough.

“Maybe when Jay feels a little better, she can help,” Jane said, knowing well enough that even if the dragon recovered enough, this was a lot to ask. Loki hadn’t been very kind to her so far, even for his standards.

“Do you think I made the wrong choice?” Thor took her hands, lifting them to lie against his chest. “It was my decision that left the throne to Loki, and it is my fault if that results in…”

“… him turning all the bicycles in the world into ice cream?” Jane finished the sentence for him, decidedly unhappy about the heaviness of their pre-pillow talk. “It’s gonna be his decision, not yours. He could have said no, too, couldn’t he? And then they wouldn’t have had anyone at all, and you two could have had one of your little bickers, and everything would have been like always except a little different because I’d have suggested Darcy for queen. She’s really good at this stuff, she’s studied it.”

“Maybe that would be a good idea,” Thor said with traces of his old smile returning. “Unless you wish to become queen.”

“Oh _hell_ no. You wouldn’t want that. The universe wouldn’t want that.”

In this moment, with this way he looked at her just then, Jane didn’t doubt that at one word of hers Thor would have bounced back to his home world to appoint his brother the position of court jester. Loki seemed to have a thing for odd hats.

Still, Jane wasn’t romantic enough to believe that Thor loved her enough to do so. He was insecure, that was the whole explanation. It was sweet of him to ask anyway. She said:

“And the universe doesn’t want you to be king either, or it wouldn’t have sent you here.”

Jane had read that line somewhere on a magazine cover once, and she felt terrible for using it now, but that was the nicest way to express her actual opinion: that he simply wasn’t made to be king. If he wouldn’t have messed it up, it would have broken him. The way he was here, on Earth – curious as a kitten, although much calmer, and visibly happy most of the time – well – Jane wasn’t an expert, but he had never been that way on his home world when she had been around. She was, however, an egoist, and she knew exactly how she wanted him to be: happy.

Rising onto the tips of her toes, Jane drew her sweet, sweet alien into a sweet, sweet kiss, wriggling free her hands from his and letting them wander down his chest, stomach, to the seam of his shirt. Slowly and a little shy, no more than the tips of Jane’s fingers slid under the thin fabric to caress those gorgeous abs. Well. As awkward as she was, it probably felt like a tickle. Thor didn’t seem to mind though: he cocked his head, a playful glint in his eyes as he smiled down at her. Before she knew it, Jane blurted out:

“I’ve asked Betty for a way to make me live for some millennia – like you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine Gamora's spaceship to be the equivalent of an ultra-chic sports car, although she may have gotten this one to distract herself after breaking up with Peter Quill (in this story). As for reasons, they simply didn't have enough in common and sorta kinda got on each other's nerves.


	17. Chapter 17

“I didn’t expect him to do a happy dance, but a panic attack – bit of an overreaction,” Jane growled, sitting slumped down in front of Doctor Kapoor’s desk.

“Well, the announcement that you are trying to turn yourself into another species may have come as a bit of a shock to him,” the Doc said.

“I’m not trying to change my species, I just don’t want to – I want to stay together with him for as long as possible. Why would that be so shocking?” Sinking deeper into her sulk, Jane added: “I thought he loved me.”

“I am sure Thor does, but he may not have expected you to go to such lengths for him. He will be worried about your health, too.”

Jane blinked in confusion, trying not to sound too frustrated when she asked:

“Why would he be worried about my health? … oh.”

The Doctor leant forward, her expression thoughtful, her voice warm.

“I think it highly likely that he may not want you to risk so much for his sake. If, as you say, he worries deeply about having left the throne to his brother in order to stay on Earth with you, then he may have realised in that moment that this decision has brought you to consider such a risk.”

“Yeah, that sounds like him,” Jane snarled before she could stop herself. She wished she could have been angry.

“Is that a problem for you?”

“What is?”

“This extent of care. Does it bother you, does it make you feel uncomfortable?”

No.

“It’s not uncomfortable, it’s just…” She quenched her brain for the right words. “I’m so bad at detecting it when he does it, and I’m even worse at being that way myself.”

“Well,” Doctor Kapoor said, leaning back, “the only thing you can do about the first issue is to tell him. Whenever you feel that you are not understanding something, or missing something, the easiest and most effective way is to make sure your partner knows that.”

“I know. We’ve tried that,” Jane nodded. “I think it worked, a little bit.”

“You have the additional bonus of living with someone who comes from another planet, you have to talk about a lot of things that are different for the both of you simply because of that. He has fewer expectations of you than a – a human boyfriend.”

Considering how her past relationships had gone, especially how they respectively had ended, that was certainly true.

“About the second, that is not so easy,” the doctor said. Jane snorted. As if talking about each and every little thing was easy. “You will have to find a way of giving what you can without exhausting yourself – such as big shopping trips, especially when you are sick – and accepting that there are things you cannot do.”

In her inimitably friendly, soothing voice, Doctor Kapoor added:

“If someone loves you, they don’t do so because they expect you to do this or that for them. Love is not calculated like a bill, you do not have to balance the load of who does what. The important part is to find out if what both of you feel amounts to the same, and how you can and want to show that.”

“I love him very much,” Jane said, feeling decidedly sheepish.

“And I think Thor knows,” the Doctor smiled.

“Really?”

“Really.”

They talked about some more things before the time was up, as usual, way too quickly and still so healing. Jane had originally made the appointment for Thor, but he hadn’t wanted it. She still thought that it would have done him good, but if he wasn’t ready to talk to anyone about such a fresh thing, then it was surely better if he didn’t.

Jane couldn’t suppress a hearty yawn on her way to the car. Last night hadn’t been good. Not at all.

Thor had been so shocked when she had told him about what she had asked Betty that for a moment – a moment that became almost the whole rest of the night – he hadn’t said anything at all, hadn’t responded in any way to her worried words, her hands when she led him to sit down, or the awkward hugs with which she had tried to calm him during his numerous nightmares. Those had become a little better during the past handful of weeks.

They had gotten up very early, Jane whirling around in the kitchen, riding her fatigue from an almost sleepless night until several dozen cupcakes were done and ready. Darcy and Thor, together with a slightly less wobbly Jay, had taken the sweets over to G. Street while Jane had left for Doctor Kapoor’s practice. That had been her day so far. It could only get better, right?

Oh, she could be so funny.

Driving in her state of fatigue wasn’t such a splendid idea, and as her mother’s house happened to be situated much closer than G. Street, Jane decided that she wasn’t ready for being everyone’s favourite smiley Post-It. One wasn’t supposed to do a full workout when the muscles in question were still sore.

Jane noticed how wrong she had been when she opened the door to the very dark, very quiet hallway of fail. Every time they had guests, the house felt so small, and even with just the three or four of them, Jane wished there had been more space for everyone. On her own, she wasn’t quite sure if she’d make it to the living room within the course of one year. She should have brought some sandwiches.

Somehow Jane found herself upstairs quickly enough to not consider nibbling at the carpets, an effort of which she asked herself why she had undertaken it. The couch downstairs was so much better, why didn’t anybody use it? Maybe that should be the topic of her next research paper.

Going downstairs to start the work on her theory was decidedly out of question, as Jane had no ways of acquiring or carrying a year’s worth of muffins for the way. On the other hand, the prospect of snuggling into the Bed Of Fail all on her own wasn’t very enticing either, new covers or no.

Jane tried a frustrated grunt when she thumped down onto the bed, but that didn’t help to make her angry either. Not fair. She didn’t want to be sad.

Sitting up with a pout, Jane let her eyes wander over the room – there. She snatched up the sweatshirt Thor had dropped last night. He tended to be very orderly, not so much because he was used to take care of his clothes, but it was one of Jane’s habits he had imitated ever since he had moved in. She loved watching him adapting, especially when it was something he would have done by servants at his home. For someone so spoilt, he tried really hard not to be.

Wrapped in the fabric smelling faintly of a mild detergent and hours of cuddling, Jane huddled up between several layers of covers. She felt weak as a leak cooked for an hour, so bad she couldn’t even cry. This was how all her past relationships had ended. Because she couldn’t get out of her own head.

Aeons went by, born out of the infinite gravity of fully fledged-out self-pity. It was okay. She had every right to sulk. If she’d end up with nothing again, she’d have had this sulk. Sulking could be turned into energy, it was physics. One day someone would discover the formula.

She must have fallen asleep, for the next thing Jane noticed was a gentle, almost shy hug around her middle. Her heart did a leap, and not being a particularly big person, Jane’s whole body followed the movement as she turned on the spot.

Visibly flabbergasted, Thor stared at her with a mix of surprise and his purest puppy gaze, a little cross-eyed because of their closeness. Good. Jane was too tired for being angry with him.

She flung herself onto him and returned the embrace with everything she had, arms, legs, she’d have wiggled her ears around his if that had been possible. Thanks God he was quick enough to get the hint, to kiss her back the way she deserved. Jane wouldn’t have settled for any less.

If he wanted to say something, then Jane made sure he didn’t get the chance. Thor didn’t quite seem to mind all the kissing, but he stayed shy. Even after half an eternity, when the feeble rest of her strength finally faltered and she lay snuggled into his shirt, he did not speak, just held her, very carefully. It took Jane even longer to realise that he was afraid, and she didn’t understand why.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, very quietly and with even greater effort.

He didn’t say any more, and that made it even more difficult to solve the puzzle, most of all because Jane still wasn’t sure what he was sorry about. He held her very close though, so it wasn’t an “I’m sorry, I’m dating the postman and will be gone tonight, please forward my mail”-sorry. Was he apologising last night? For panicking? Why would anyone feel sorry for panicking, and to her, of all people?

It would take her much longer to realise that she had understood, and perfectly well. What had made it so hard to process was the fact that for once, she wasn’t the one apologising for her ways. Right now though, she wriggled upwards so she could gently tap her nose against Thor’s until his smile returned. Once that was done, they had all the time in the world to continue where they’d left off at the snuggling – until Jane’s traitorous stomach growled.

“We brought Indian food from a takeaway restaurant,” Thor murmured into her ear. Jane pouted:

“I don’t wanna get up.”

“Would you prefer I carry you?”

“Mm… maybe.”

And so he did, in perfectly princely fashion, Jane wrapped in a blanket (not too warm, despite her standard outfit of triple-layered shirts) and comfortably balanced in his arms. There were worse ways of travelling.

Darcy’s room door was already closed, meaning that she had gone to bed. Jane hoped sincerely that she’d left them some of the food whose beautiful fragrance she could smell all the way through the upstairs corridor. The sight of a true mountain of food boxes on the kitchen table, only about half of them opened, calmed her nerves a little. After all, she was quite hungry – oh, and Thor may need a spot of lunch, too.

They sat huddled up together on the narrow kitchen bench, not so comfortable, but it would do for now. The food had clearly been chosen by Darcy, who insisted on the spiciest choices on the menu, but there was enough bread to balance out the chilli.

“Some more?” Thor asked, offering Jane the least brain-scorching chicken dish. She shook her head.

“Thanks, I’m full.” Which didn’t keep her from nibbling some baked fruit in honey. “It’s good, but… your cooking is better.”

Jane had loved takeaway food once, a rare luxury she couldn’t afford very often. Now she compared everything with Thor’s skilful meals of “I have no idea what this Earth fruit is, but it tastes wonderful with meat so let’s fry it”.

At least her words gave him most of his old smile back.

“So is your baking. I’ll cook tonight, if you want.”

“Yes, please,” Jane grinned.

After having cleaned away the worst in the kitchen, they discovered a gently humming Jay in the living room, where she had curled up next to the heater with Darcy’s headphones. She was going through her ABBA phase again. Disturbing her was decidedly not a good idea.

“Look!”

Jane pointed at the window, where the softest snowflakes had started to fall. They melted once they touched the ground, for it was still too warm for a proper winter, but the sight was one to behold none the less.

“Hey,” Jane gently tapped Jay’s shoulder, “it’s snowing outside.”

“I know,” Jay growled.

“Do you want to go outside?”

Jay rolled her eyes.

“I freeze in the cold.”

It was so easy to forget that Jay was half-reptilian. How she had made it through Siberia for centuries remained a mystery.

She crawled back into her headphones to vanish under the heater once again. Jane shrugged. It _was_ cold outside, and Jay had somehow managed to make the living room nice and cosy, without its old draught. Maybe it was the downy presence of tons of feel-good pop music that had of late started to populate Darcy’s iPod. Who knew what sort of witchcraft lay in that sort of stuff?

A moment later, Thor returned from the kitchen with a fresh pot of tea and three mugs. He poured one for Jane, then another one which he carried over to the heater, carefully fanning the liquid’s perfume in Jay’s direction before turning back to wink at Jane. He had hardly filled his own cup when Jay snatched hers from the table, retreating into the furthest corner of the sofa with her treasure. It took Jane all of her self-control in order not to grin at Thor. She should have trusted him to find ways of how to coax Jay away from her beloved floor.

“Back in a moment.”

Jane went to the hallway, where her bag waited with her phone. She dug up the device, hesitated, then looked closer at what lay on the wardrobe stand: Darcy’s dog-eared copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, complete with a book shop’s free advertisement bookmark whose cashier Darcy said to have dated once. Jane took the book with her, but left the bookmark.

Yesterday, in the bookstore – had it really been not even a day ago? – Darcy, Jane and several very nice shop assistants had tried to find a piece of fiction for Thor that was easy to read, significant enough to enhance his knowledge on the contemporary human culture of literature, and neither upsetting nor boring. They had taken a whole long time, with Darcy finally declaring that she’d bookclub him through her Awesome Collection of Comfort Reads That Weren’t Stupid. Apparently the Harry Potter series was to be their first topic. Jane sincerely hoped that Thor would have developed his own taste of literature before they got to “Pride and Prejudice”. If there was one woman she couldn’t stand to get between her and her boyfriend, then it was Jane Austen.

“Got something for you,” she said, waving the paperback when she went back into the living room. “We’ll have to find you a new bookmark though, for marking the page where you leave off in between. Want me to craft you one? Maybe with some glitter?”

She gave Thor credit for trying to sneer at her grin, and failing completely once his great big smile took over. Oh, she’d make him a lovely bookmark. Something with a fluffy bunny, just to see him try to pout once more.

With Jane snuggled up to his one side, Thor pointed at the book and asked Jay: “Some reading practice?”

The scrawny dragon didn’t look too happy at the suggestion, but she crept closer, carefully.

“Must I?”

“It’s a story.” He turned to look at Jane. “Right?”

Too adorable, not so much how he still struggled with the concept of entertaining fiction, but how much he tried to learn.

“Mm-hm,” Jane said. “Very popular. Lots of people who didn’t like reading before started to love reading again because of this book. I can’t believe you haven’t heard of it.”

Jay mumbled:

“I kept away. It was the best thing to do during the last century.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

While the two aliens read, Jane checked her e-mails. Boring, spam, some interview offer she’d ignore like all the others, newsletter she never checked, her mother, spam, boring, boring, boring… Mr Wen.

Her pulse accelerated so quickly that it almost made her bounce off the couch if it hadn’t been for Thor’s arm around her middle. Jane opened the real estate agent’s message.

“Oh my God! We can have the keys next week!”

“Uh-huh.”

Well. Jane would have expected a lot of reactions, but certainly none as underwhelming as this. She craned her neck to see what Jay was doing, and as she should have expected, the dragon had fallen asleep snuggled up against her cousin. Thor, however, seemed completely absorbed in his book. For a moment, Jane wasn’t quite sure if she should be amused or not particularly grateful to Darcy.

“Thor? Darling?”

“Mm.”

“We can have the house next week.”

“Good.”

“Loki is doing somersaults on the roof wearing a pink hippo costume.”

When that didn’t cause a reaction, Jane jumped onto her knees and in the fracture of a second smooched Thor’s cheek. He flinched most satisfyingly before looking at her with a mix of amusement and surprise. Definitely worth the prickly scruff.

“We can have the keys for the house next week,” Jane smiled, her mood immediately softened by the adorable confusion on his face. The confusion vanished at the sound of her words and left nothing but a giddy ray of sunshine.

“That _is_ good news!”

“And that’s a really good book, huh?”

He looked at the paperback in his hands, suddenly blushing a little at the realisation that he had ignored her. Adorkable had a name.

“Uh – it is a captivating story.”

“I know, right? If you have any questions, just ask, okay?”

Thor hesitated, then said:

“Is it normal for humans to live in dusty closets under the stairs that are full of spiders?”

* * *

She couldn’t sleep with that ghastly snow falling outside. It was noisy, it was annoying, it was kitsch. The way it dampened absolutely everything, solidifying a silence that was too much for her tender nerves, snowfall was Darcy’s equivalent of scratching-noises on a blackboard.

There was just enough leftover lunch, leftover cupcakes and leftover tea (of today – Darcy preferred leftovers that hadn’t become leftovers yet) in the kitchen so she wouldn’t bite anyone. Wrapped in Jane’s glorious bathrobe of sparkly elegance, she went to look for her housemates.

It was odd to find Jane in the study, the one place that still resembled their former lab insofar as that it contained bookshelves. Not just that, Jane actually handled something that looked like a screwdriver, except it was small enough to pass for a toothpick for ladybugs.

“I missed the toolbox,” Darcy smiled. It was hard to keep that up when the sight of Jane finally fiddling around with some tech again made her want to shed a little tear of sentiment.

“I’d wanted to keep Gamora’s presents for when I had a proper lab and enough time again, but… it’s alien tech from outer space!” A giddy grin spread over Jane’s face. Darcy would have forgiven her anything in this moment, even the terrible squirrel t-shirt Jane always refused to throw away. It was terrible because it didn’t fit Darcy.

“Wouldn’t have expected patience to become one of your virtues all of a sudden,” her intern grinned back.

“I’d filled in a dozen spreadsheets with all the different things we still need to get before we can move houses, and then ten minutes of trying to read along with Thor – Slow reader, gotta be kidding me! – and another five of fidgeting…”

“It’s great, I’m glad you’re –“

“- and I think I got it working,” Jane beamed.

“No way!”

Yes way. If anyone could fill the galaxy with free wifi, it was Jane “The Wiring” Foster.

“Do you want to make a call to a spaceship?” Jane grinned.

“Are you really asking me that?”

Jane handed her the small device. There were no visible controls, but whatever her dorky house genius had done with it, Darcy heard a low rustling coming from the speaker openings.

“… hello? Is that space? How are you, space?”

“Hello Darcy,” Gamora’s voice said.

“Oh my God! I’m talking to space!” Darcy squeaked.

“Not quite, I’m afraid. We’re circling in your stratosphere.”

Darcy looked at Jane, asking:

“Stratosphere is close enough to space, right?”

“Close enough, yeah,” Jane nodded.

“Squee!”

Jane bent over to speak into the communicator:

“Come down if you want hot chocolate cake.”

“And you _want_ Jane’s hot chocolate cake,” Darcy added. “It comes with a surprise.”

It took Jane no longer than twenty minutes to have the small cakes in the oven, by which time Darcy let in their guests by the front door. She lifted a finger to her lips to indicate silence, and it seemed to be a gesture universally understood – literally. Everyone carrying a plate with a steaming little chocolate cake and a scoop of ice cream, Darcy, Gamora, Sif and Jane tiptoed into the living room.

Darcy would never forget the squeaking noise Sif made when she saw the two cousins curled up on the sofa together, one still reading, one snuggle-napping. Jane really had a talent to come up with just the right sweet for every occasion.

“Surprise,” the latter purred into her boyfriend’s ear. Judging by Thor’s face when he saw their guests, it really was one, but then, anyone would have looked like that if confronted with Jane’s baking talent.

Gamora was about to take a seat on one of the chairs accompanying the sofa, but Darcy would have none of it.

“Nope, non, niente, we all fit on the sofa. Squeeze, everyone!” she said.

“Darcy, it’s okay. We fit without stacking,” Jane chuckled.

“Yeah, but I need to take a selfie.”

Darcy looked at the screen of her phone – perfect. Jay blinking tiredly, Gamora kissing Sif’s cheek, Jane and Thor the better-than-fiction fairytale couple, and her own humble self, all in a big pile of hug.

“’Goldilocks and the five chocolate cakes’. If anyone present for any reason doesn’t want this masterpiece of a snapshot to adorn my blog, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”

“We’re not chocolate cakes,” Jay yawned.

“Oh, you were in the picture? Didn’t notice, you’re so small.”

Nobody listened to Darcy’s words, for they had discovered the cakes’ secret: they were liquid inside, thanks to only having been baked for some minutes. If Jane had wanted to silence her doubters much earlier that even the best magic could be explained by pretty simple science, she should have served these cakes – but who was Darcy to judge?

“I’ll get the whipped cream,” she said. Better not mention the sprinkles, for Darcy wasn’t sure there were any left.

“Darcy, there’s ice cream,” Jane said.

“Since when is that a no for whipped cream? Don’t tell me you two used it all up.”

“What? _No_ , we’ve never –“

Jane turned a beautiful shade of lobster pink, while all the aliens squeezing onto the sofa looked at them both with completely clueless faces.

Before Darcy could start her spontaneous lecture about whipped cream, the doorbell rang. She rolled her eyes. This was a _house_ , not the intergalactic main station.

Good intern that she was, and because the kitchen lay on the way, Darcy went to open the door. The sight was one she wouldn’t have swapped for rainbow-coloured glitter sprinkles though: tall, superstar-beautiful, doe-eyed Betty Ross smiling warmly, and a step behind her, tousled Doctor Bruce Banner in an ill-fitting everything, very obviously wishing he were somewhere else.

“Jane, it’s Betty and Bruce!” Darcy yelled.

Her announcement was met with the sound of at least two people falling off a sofa. Darcy turned back to their newly arrived guests.

“Wanna come in? There’s spare seats now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This sort of chocolate dish exists, but I've never tried it, so I'll have to take Darcy's word for its quality. ;)


	18. Chapter 18

Betty looked a little nervous as she sat surrounded by everyone intently listening to her – Jane could relate. Being a woman in the sciences rarely meant having a lot of people paying attention to what one had to say. The little glances Bruce let wander to where Gamora sat were amusing though.

“So, I’ve analysed your sample, and I thought I’d better tell you in person,” Betty said.

Unable to move, Jane felt all warmth leave her body. She was all the more grateful when Thor’s hand closed around hers on the couch. She held onto that.

“… so?”

“It looks as if your DNA has been changed by that alien… entity you had. And not just a bit, if you get my meaning.”

“Is that bad?”

“Depends on your point of view – I’m completely fascinated,” Betty grinned. Her expression sobered immediately at the lack of everyone’s enthusiasm for her joke. “Anyway – it doesn’t look like there’s much of a discordance, more as if… this stuff knows exactly what it does.”

“As far as we know, the Infinity Gems protect their bearers so long as there is a chance that they may be taken off their path,” Thor said. “It is likely that the longer the Gem is carried, the more it alters its bearer to accommodate its requirements.”

Jane nodded. “It’s a sort of programming the Gems follow. It would explain how Jay could have hers so long, and why it’s much harder for her to live without it than it is for me – physically, at least.”

Betty stretched out her hand, holding a small black device. Jane already knew what it did and was prepared for the prick in her fingertip, but she flinched at the sensation anyway.

“What’s that?” Darcy asked.

“My phone?” Betty plugged the sample container into her smartphone and fumbled around with the display. The longest ten seconds of Jane’s life later, Betty said:

“As I thought. It’s not much, and the samples are not representative because there’s obviously… okay, you know that. Anyway, it looks as if the changes are increasing.”

Not daring to spend any more words, Jane asked:

“Meaning?”

“Of course, yes, I was coming to that.” Betty drew a deep breath. “Your samples show very obviously that you’re turning into… someone whose DNA will keep them going for a long time. A very long time, if you guys are anything to judge by,” Betty nodded at the collected aliens.

As the frost that had kept her from moving before finally releasing her from its grip, Jane let herself fall against Thor with a sigh of relief. He put one arm around her, then the other, and she could feel how he breathed out very deeply, very controlled.

“Does this mean Jane has to carry an Infinity Gem forever?”

“Honestly, that’s a piece of cake,” Jane mumbled out of Thor’s shirt before bolting upright in shock: “Oh my God, I haven’t offered you any cake! Wait, I’ll just –“

Before she could go anywhere, Thor had pulled her back down onto the couch and into one of his frustratingly calm and irresistibly firm kisses. Jane could hear Darcy meow. Fine, she thought before fully melting into the motion, so kissing had first priority.

But then she ran into the kitchen to make some more chocolate cakes for everybody. If Thor wanted to know how good a kisser he was, he just needed to count how often she bumped into walls on the way.

The answer was: more often than there were walls.

* * *

“Betty looked really happy about being beamed up to space, but I’m not sure Bruce is having such a good time,” Darcy said between two deep slurps of her hot chocolate. “Though I’m not sure Bruce knows how to spell ‘relax’ anyway.”

Thor replied:

“He is anxious about his other side, but he has not met Sif’s skills when it comes to spending a night with friends in an alehouse.”

“I didn’t doubt that he’s in good hands.”

“I just hope they’ll get Betty out of the gardens… some day,” Jane said. “She has enough work there for a lifetime.”

“See, that’s what Bruce can Hulk out for,” Darcy beamed.

The others had left after tea. Sif hadn’t shown Gamora her home world yet, so Jane and Thor had suggested to take Betty along simultaneously. They owed her so much. 

“Bruce really needs to get used to the idea that a lot of the people he spends his time with were not afraid of him turning green,” Darcy continued. “In fact, I reckon he’d make a lot more friends up there if he changes into his extra large wardrobe.”

“Imagine Loki’s face,” Jane giggled. At this, Darcy’s eyes lit up.

“Give me the communicator!”

Jane fumbled with the device until it lit up. They heard a little static noise, and then the princess’s voice could be heard.

“Jane? Is that you?” Gamora asked.

“Yeah, looks like this is working through the whole nebula,” Jane smiled. “Wait, Darcy wants to talk to you.”

The intern was wiggling in eagerness to get the communicator. When she finally held it in her hand, Darcy said:

“Gamora? Tell Sif to get Bruce and Loki into a drinking contest.”

Handing back the device, she added with a smug grin:

“You can all thank me later.”

It was too good a night to worry about anything. Even Jay seemed a little more energised. She insisted on helping with the dishwasher, and Jane was glad about it.

“You don’t have to help though. You’re a guest.”

“No, I want to. Being lazy isn’t good.”

Jane guessed the little dragon to have religious reasons, but what was more important was that being active would help Jay with her depressions. Besides, she didn’t actually want Jay to feel like a guest. Jay was family.

“Wanna pray together tonight?” she asked on a whim. Jay smiled when she replied:

“Sure. So you pray, too?”

“Not as much as I should, but tonight I gotta thank someone,” Jane smiled back.

They prayed together in silence a short time later, before Jay went to bed looking a little less afraid of practically everything than she usually did.

It was still an early evening, and somehow Jane didn’t feel like letting it pass so quickly yet.

“Already leaving?” she asked Darcy, who was putting on her coat in the hallway. Thor joined them from the kitchen, where he had prepared next day’s lunch, and some of the various snacks they and a possible half a dozen expectedly unexpected guests would require during the day.

“Yeah,” Darcy said, “need a bit of fresh air.”

“Where _are_ you going all the time?”

Darcy shrugged. “Anywhere.” Jane left it at that.

“We should restock on food, I can do that in the morning, if you prefer to stay here,” Thor interrupted. Jane reached for his hand.

“Nope. Coming with you,” she blinked. “We can go now though, I think the supermarkets are still open.”

Darcy rolled her eyes.

“You guys are _hopeless_ , you know that? Have you ever been out on a proper date?”

“Well,” Jane found herself stammering, “there wasn’t much time, and I’m not sure it’s such a good idea…”

“I’m sure we will have much more leisure for romantic dinners soon,” Thor smiled down at her, putting an arm around Jane. Not just her shoulders, the whole of her. Was she really that small? Or was just about everybody so much _more_?

“Good, and get her some decent dresses,” Darcy snarled. “She has exactly one, and the only accessories that go with it are a broom, a bucket and a dust cloth.”

“ _Out_!” Jane snarled back. She couldn’t suppress a grin when Darcy stuck out her tongue though, before vanishing through the front door. Turning back to Thor, Jane said:

“I’m just – I never needed fancy clothes, there was always stuff I needed more, so… I’m not really a dating person anyway.”

His eyes sparkled a little too mischievously to indicate that Thor was planning any less than a full-scale sequel to their dress-up game. At the sight of her lack of amusement though, his expression softened and he bent down to kiss her lightly, his left hand caressing her cheek.

“I am sure that there is something you like to do. There is no need to waste time on anything else.”

“But we have time now,” she said quietly, turning into his embrace.

“Yes. We have time.”

Jane hated herself for her honesty, but she could not help it when she said:

“There’s something I haven’t told you.”

He’d be angry at her. He had every right to be. Still, when she looked up, the only emotion in his eyes was worry. Worry for her. If she didn’t tell him now, she’d never find the courage again.

“I didn’t stumble into the Aether by accident. I mean, I did, but…” Jane felt herself tripping over her own tongue again. Before she could dully develop the panic that had been building in her stomach though, she felt Thor strengthening his embrace around her. Her legs a little less wobbly, she said: “I found myself in this weird parallel world, and there was this stone column with the Aether inside. But the Darkelves were there, too. I just happened to stand between them and the column.”

“Malekith?”

“Yes. He said something like ‘Step out of my way, wench’ or – you know how he talks, and I was like ‘whatever, gramps’ and – you know the rest.” She sighed. “I got myself into all that trouble with that Infinity Gem on purpose.”

She felt Thor lift her chin, so gently he may have dealt with a bird.

“There is no braver creature in the universe than you, Jane Foster,” Thor said, leaning his forehead against hers.

“Uhm… thanks?” she giggled, trying to hide her embarrassment. She had expected a lot, but not a compliment.

“Nor a more beautiful one.”

“Hold on – is this a try to get me dress-shopping?” Jane said, narrowing her eyes.

“It was not intended to be, but as we are talking about it…” Thor grinned back.

To Jane, it felt like an unnecessarily difficult end to a necessarily difficult day. She let herself fall against her cuddle spot on Thor’s chest and growled:

“Are my clothes that horrible?”

“They are not. They are, however, maybe not the most effective in bringing out your full beauty, and… oh for fate’s sake, Jane, just let me spoil you a little once in a while.”

“Okay.”

“Deal?”

“Mm-hm,” Jane mumbled, her face still pressed firmly against Thor’s shirt so he wouldn’t see that the temperature of her face had reached boiled tomato. “But only a little.”

“Good.”

“Sometimes.”

“Very well.”

“And I get to spoil you, too.”

“I cannot wait.”

“Challenge accepted.”

Two and a half hours later, after a tour for everything they didn’t know that looked yummy enough to try through every supermarket, deli shop and takeaway restaurant still open in the area, they sat on the kitchen floor, tasting their culinary finds and looking up whatever they could about them. Jane may never have learnt more about food than How To Add More Salt, so she enjoyed the lesson just as much as her alien lover. She enjoyed all the more that they nommed the best bits from each other’s fingertips, and judging by Thor’s face, the feeling was mutual.

Luckily, cleaning up did not require more than stuffing the feeble leftovers into the refrigerator and throwing two forks into the dishwasher. They were far too busy kissing for any more, and besides, after hours of walking and with all the good food in her belly, Jane felt a cosily warm fatigue spreading through her limbs. The kitchen had been looking after itself for centuries, it wouldn’t stop doing so all of a sudden.

Neither would the kitchen care about Jane being carried upstairs. She had allowed Thor to spoil her a _little_ sometimes, and compared to a spontaneous romantic food shopping night ending in front of the fridge, this wasn’t much.

“Hey,” she said when they had both gotten themselves ready for bed and were about to snuggle up, “here’s a human custom you’ll like: reading in bed.”

“I cannot wait to learn more about all these fascinating human customs,” Thor said with a hint of sarcasm in his smile.

“Save your smugness for when you’ve learnt about _breakfast_ in bed,” she said, her sneer vanishing under a dawning grin when they cuddled up together. They had forgotten Darcy’s paperback downstairs, so Jane had gone to fetch it – or rather, as she had still been in Thor’s arms, he had carried her downstairs again so she could fetch it for him. They did work awfully well as a team.

“If it is about breakfast, then it is a custom I’ll learn about very happily,” he smiled into her hair. Jane would have had to hand back her degrees if that was an academic challenge she’d refuse.

* * *

As if making breakfast wasn’t academically challenging enough, doing so while a freshly returned Darcy left the remnants of last night in the downstairs bathroom almost directly opposite the kitchen became more of an ordeal than Jane would have wished. When Darcy entered the kitchen, Jane wordlessly handed her a cup of tea.

While she did her best about cooking the toast and slicing up an orange – not the other way ‘round, Jane – Darcy got the frying pan going. At the sight of the beaten eggs in their bowl though, she decided for another round out of the kitchen. Jane took over, and although the toast startled her (terribly rude food, toast), she managed not to burn the eggs whilst scrambling them just so.

When Jane was already halfway through making fresh orange juice, hoping the machine’s noise wouldn’t wake up Thor on the one day she had managed to wake up before him, Darcy returned.

“Feeling any better?” Jane asked. Seriously, someone should come up with a phrasebook for situations as this that wasn’t full of questions such as “Are you okay?” which just called for lies or a straightforward “No, obviously not, you moron”.

“Lighter,” Darcy said.

“There’s some coffee.”

“Need to sleep.”

Darcy leant against the kitchen counter, watching Jane squeeze another orange into the juice jug.

“What’s going on, Darcy?”

“Nothing.”

Jane threw the sad remnants of the orange half into the waste bin, washed and dried her hands, and leant against the counter next to Darcy.

“The last time, ‘nothing’ meant you’d broken up with a guy. I don’t think you already got a new one, so –“

“It’s not about a guy.”

“What is it then?”

“Nothing, okay?” Darcy snapped.

Jane would have given a lot for not having to ask the next question.

“Is it me?”

“No.”

“Darcy?”

“It’s not you, it’s… it’s stupid.”

“I don’t think so.”

With a frustrated sigh that must have been felt in at least five parallel worlds, Darcy said:

“It’s that house. You and Mister Universe are tying the knot, or at least that’s pretty much what it’s like, so… you don’t need me anymore. I don’t want to ruin it for you, and –“

“It’s Mister Nebula, not Mister Universe, and you’re fully required to move in with us. So is Jay. And if that house is anything to go by, we’ll always need at least three more guests and a dozen cats and whatnot to make sure it doesn’t feel empty,” Jane said.

As Darcy’s brain seemed too busy translating, Jane used the chance to pull her friend into a very necessary hug.

“You’re family. You’ve been more of a family to me in these past years than my own family all my life, okay? I can’t imagine what it’s like not to live in the same house with you, so don’t you dare stay behind.”

Maybe she was crying, maybe not, it was hard to tell with Darcy sobbing all over them both. She hugged Jane back with enough strength to make her bones creak, and it was great.

“Okay, but don’t complain about my wild parties with the local knitting club,” Darcy grinned through her tears.

“Only if you invite Steve,” Jane smiled back. “So. Feeling better?”

“Much. And you should triple that amount of scrambled eggs.”

“I’m not sure all the chickens in the world can produce that many eggs.”

It was breakfast in bed that morning, although not the cheesy romantic kind Jane had imagined. Not that it would have worked anyway, as she was hardly able to carry upstairs the masses of food needed to nourish a fully grown alien after a long night’s sleep – not after an astrophysicist had had their serving, anyway.

No, it was much better, with the three of them plus a sleepy Jay munching their starters in bed and then going down to the kitchen together for a real meal. Thor showed Jay how to make a fruit salad, Jane cooked tiny apple pizzas, and finally, a very relaxed-looking Darcy fell asleep in the cosiest corner of the kitchen bench.

Phew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will finally feature the crazy house, and it's gonna be quite romantic, too. :)


	19. Chapter 19

This was becoming embarrassing.

“Okay, you can let me down.”

“Shush, go back to sleep.”

Jane took a deep breath before she said with pointed calamity:

“Honestly, you do not have to carry me. I’m fine, I can walk.”

“Yes, but you don’t have to.”

No, but being carried by Prince Charming like a princess freshly rescued from the thralls of an evil dragon was not something written down in Jane’s job description. Not even if the prince was an alien from outer space.

“Darling – we’re not at home.”

“True.”

“We’re in a furniture store.”

“Yes.”

“The staff is taking pictures with their phones.”

“Should we pose?”

Thor put her back on her feet anyway. Jane quickly rearranged her dishevelled hair approximately back to where it was supposed to go before tapping hurriedly after the big shopping cart Thor was pushing. At least that thing was too full for Darcy to ride in now. _That_ would have made a picture.

Although they had ordered the most necessary items of furniture to be delivered, Darcy had decided that there was too much small stuff they should purchase the old-fashioned way, so they’d have it at hand immediately at the new house. This included bedstuffs, for Jane wouldn’t give her okay to the purchase of a mattress that may not be the absolute Heaven, not to mention pillows, sheets and an assortment of blankets to suit every guest they may ever welcome (“Including the Ghost of Canterville?” Darcy had asked). This, in return, meant that Jane had to test what they were going to buy, with the result that she had fallen asleep on a bed on display while Darcy and Thor had made their rounds through the shop, picking up Jane on their way to the checkouts. Hence the damsel-in-distress conundrum.

Eyeing the mountain of things on their cart – everything from cutlery over cat baskets (“We are going to have cats?” – “Darling, sweetheart, love of my life, we’re _so_ going to have kids, I mean, cats. Cats.” – “Darcy, we are going to have cats!” – “Nice, buddy. Now, which aisle are the lint rollers…?”) to sofa cushions – Jane wondered how they wanted to transport all that stuff in a humbly-sized second hand car plus three people.

In the end, it was just Jane driving in the tiny space a laundry basket and a broomstick left her, while Darcy and Thor took the train with some more of their shopping bags. Jane would have loved to compliment herself for having been chosen for best driver, but then, she knew it had been because she was the only person still able to squeeze into the car after the cat basket had been pushed on top of everything. She shouldn’t have insisted on buying the thing… except she’d had to. The cushion had been so comfy when Jane had curled up in it.

Jay was back at her aunt’s while the move-in took place, to make sure the frail dragon didn’t get upset over not being able to carry a kitchen table (carrying a Jane carrying their takeaway lunch) the way her cousin could. And did. And found hugely amusing.

Just that morning, they had met Mr Wen in their new front garden and exchanged a big box of Jane’s finest cupcakes for the house keys. Technically the paperwork wasn’t approved yet, but with the payment having gone through, the former owners saw no reason why to let their business partners wait any longer.

“I am supposed to give you all a hug from Mr and Mrs Higgins, but…” Mr Wen said with a deadpan expression.

“Only if you want,” Jane grinned back. “Would you like to come inside for a cup of tea? We got the new Stark Industries water kettle, there’s no quicker.”

It had been a surprise present from Tony and Pepper, delivered the day before.

“It’s so big, it’s practically a whirlpool,” Darcy added. “Not that I’d tried…”

“I’d love to, but I’m afraid I have another appointment,” Mr Wen said warmly.

“If it’s the house – we can have tea in the garden.”

But Mr Wen really had to leave. Jane hoped that it wasn’t about the house, while at the same time congratulating herself for having stopped talking to the cat basket before she had parked her car where Mr Wen had waited in front of the garden porch.

Darcy was already bouncing up and down the front stairs.

“Come on, boss, let’s go inside!”

Jane looked at Thor, holding up the keys.

“Together?”

He smiled, closing his fingers around hers as she pushed the key into the lock and turned it. The front door opened, and there it lay in front of them: their new home.

The door frame shouldn’t have been wide enough, but somehow they managed to step inside together, Darcy squeezing through as if it rained raspberry jelly outside. Although in that case, Darcy would only have run inside to fetch some buckets.

“Has this place become even more awesome since last time?” she said.

Maybe it had. Jane wasn’t sure there had been Art Déco ornaments carved from wood under the ceiling before, and definitely no little windows of colourful glass all up the main staircase.

“Do you think the small door upstairs has grown, too?”

“No way!”

Darcy dashed up the stairs, only to shriek a moment later:

“It has – it’s a sun room!”

“Great! We’ll reserve it for vampires!” Jane shouted.

They stashed their purchases in one of the large rooms downstairs – Jane was quite sure that the former salon had doubled its size and then grown an extra wall since their first visit, but Darcy insisted that the new room had appeared all on its own – to make way for the furniture delivered just a short time later. By three o’clock, they had a fully functioning kitchen, thanks to Thor having read just about everything on how to install dishwashers, and Jane completing the wiring for the stove. Thor had wanted to do that, too, but when it came to ovens, Doctor Jane Foster only trusted her own expertise. She didn’t want her cupcakes to float upside-down and turn a fluorescent blue every time she left them to bake too long.

By evening, they had most of the furniture approximately where it was supposed to stay, although only half the rooms were furnished, not to mention all the little things that turned a house into a place where people actually lived. It didn’t help so much that the house seemed to become bigger by itself, but that was something they’d think about once the rooms at hand were finished. Maybe they could ask the house to grow carpets, too.

Jane had made sure that Darcy’s bedroom was the first to be ready, so her intern wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor. It was a lovely, spacious room, with large windows and remainders of an elaborate wall painting of Art Déco flowers Darcy planned to restore. It opened to another small salon which Darcy wanted to paint in deep green, with a pretty sitting arrangement and the new room behind the formerly tiny door as a possible future study. Seeing Darcy perfectly sparkle with happiness relieved Jane a lot. Now, if they could just prepare a nice room for Jay…

She’d have liked to continue unpacking, arranging, planning and cleaning up forever, but at tea time sharp, Darcy asked Thor to pick up his scientist girlfriend from her field excursion. To his credit, this time he asked. Jane only agreed on the premise that they finished scrubbing the dusty walls of the big upstairs bathroom together. Once her morning shower comfort was guaranteed, she didn’t have the slightest problem with her aching feet being relieved of the task of carrying her down to the kitchen.

Dinner was large. After all the work, even Jane felt hungry enough to help herself to a second helping, as well as a box of biscuits to replace the jar of Nutella that mysteriously hadn’t made it through the last weekend. It was still early, but she felt as if she had spent the day sweeping the whole of Thor’s old palace home, maybe not the least appropriate comparison if the house kept growing at this rate. So it came to pass that Jane didn’t raise the slightest objection when Thor told her that the upstairs bathroom was clear, if she wanted to get ready for bed. The latter wasn’t the case, as all Jane wanted to do was to crawl into said bed while she kept herself from falling asleep in the washing basin.

“Good night!” a widely grinning Darcy squeaked at her in the hallway when Jane left the bathroom. Before she could say anything, Darcy had vanished into the corridor. Jane shrugged, wrapped herself tighter into her bathrobe (a pastel pink one – Darcy had insisted on gifting the sparkly rainbow unicorns to Jay) and climbed up the stairs to her new bedroom.

They hadn’t done much here, mostly because thankfully the bed had already been in place, instead of having to be hoisted inside through the narrow stairway. Jane would have been okay with sheets and pillows prepared, but when she stepped inside, she realised why Darcy had just been here.

The floor was strewn with rose petals, and all around on the window sills flickered thick, fragrant beeswax candles. On the bed, the pillows had been arranged to form a cosy nest, and the blankets had been fluffed up and stacked in just the way Jane liked. There were even two little chocolates on the main pillows, as if they stayed in a hotel. This had clearly been Darcy’s work, for it was her favourite brand of chocolate. Jane grinned at the thought of what had happened to the rest of the box. Darcy knew how to collect her well-deserved rewards.

“Are you warm enough? I can kindle this…” Thor said, pointing at the fireplace. He was just placing the last candle on one of the lower steps of the slender spiral staircase.

“No, thank you. It’s really nice,” Jane smiled. She wasn’t one for standard romance, but sometimes… sometimes it was okay to be a little standard, and a little more romantic.

He drew her close, she rested her arms on his shoulders, and they kissed. Well, there was a little gymnastics involved, as usual when they had to overcome their height difference, but Jane hardly noticed anymore. They had overcome higher obstacles than this together.

“Welcome home,” Jane whispered when they finally broke apart, foreheads and noses touching. Thor returned her smile, picked her up and together they let themselves fall into their nest.

“Jane?”

“Mm?”

She had just managed to successfully wiggle herself out of her bathrobe when Thor took her hand.

“There is something I would like to give you.”

Oh dear. He wasn’t going the full road to romance, was he? Jane had thought Darcy to have better judgement of her taste. Engagement rings were definitely out of question.

“Uhm… what is it?”

“It is… you know that Tony and Pepper have helped me set up funds here.”

Jane knew that quite well. She had once seen the numbers and thought it was the lottery statistics, written out in one row. The sight had sent Darcy into a fit of laughter she had only recovered from with the help of a lot of hot chocolate.

“I would like that money to be used for the enhancement of your work.”

_What?_

Jane stared at the ceiling, suddenly wide awake. Why, _why_ did he have to spoil this perfect day, this perfect moment?

“Let me get that right – _you_ want to finance my research?”

“That is what –“

“Thor, stop it.”

The expression on his face broke her heart – shock, disappointment, fear. Still, the anger she felt rising inside her was stronger.

“You buy this house for us, pretty much all the interior, everything – and now my work, too? That’s too much.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Honestly?”

“Yes!”

Jane groaned in frustration. She hadn’t minded explaining absolutely everything from shoe laces to train tickets so far, but sometimes the effort outgrew her strength. So much for dating aliens.

“Because if you pay, it means you’re in charge, and if that includes everything in my life, that means you’re in charge of… all that.”

Thor’s eyes widened.

“No, that is not what – Jane, no!”

She just eyed him warily. What would come now? Lengthy explanations about how he just wanted the best for her? Knew what was best for her? Would decide what was best for her? She had seen his planet, where women were expected to wear long, impractical dresses and manage the household as if caught in a bad mediaeval museum. She wouldn’t become a doll for display.

“I’m sorry, Jane,” he said, now looking truly flustered. “Please, let me explain.”

Jane allowed herself to breathe. Instead of replying, she just nodded. Shyly, Thor took her other hand, too.

“I have asked Darcy – and I hope you don’t mind that I have done so –“ Jane did mind, but she was willing to put that aside for a moment and listen. “- she said that the reason why you cannot do your work at the moment is that you do not want to bind yourself to an agreement that is not in the spirit of your work. That – that during my absence, you were treated without the necessary respect for your brilliance and capacity by astrophysical institutes and other scientists because of me.”

The last part at least held some relevance.

“That is why I want to share what I have with you. I would not know what to do with it either way, but I know how much your research means to you. What you do, all your studies of the stars and the universe, it is extraordinary, and even if we were not… even if I had never come to know you, it would mean a serious loss to the world – this world, and maybe other worlds, too – if you did not continue.”

He looked down at their joined hands before he said:

“I want you to have half of this fortune, at your free disposal, and yours alone. If you use it for your work or no, I want to be sure that you do not lack whatever you need – for being who you are – whether I am with you or not. The same goes for Darcy.” Thor’s face clouded when he added: “She told me that you did not eat enough during your studies.”

Jane rolled her eyes.

“The instant noodle diet is college tradition.” She sighed before she rolled onto her side and said: “That – that sounds great, honestly, but… the reason why I’m so beastly is that… see, a lot of humans think that it’s okay if in a relationship, the man brings home the money and takes care of the woman, but –“

“That is foolish.”

“I know!”

“Why would anyone lessen their partner in life’s monetary possessions without noticing that this lessens theirs just as much?”

“Exactly!”

Thor sighed.

“I understand, or I think I do, and I am sorry. If I had known –“

“Darling, really…” How was she supposed to say this? “I think I get what you mean, and – and – I don’t think I can accept such a big gift.”

He flashed her a wary little smile and said:

“It’s not that big in relation to what it would be worth where I come from.”

Right. He’d probably only brought some pocket money and discovered that on Earth, there weren’t enough numbers to count it.

Thor’s gaze lay on her hands, but his mind was elsewhere when he said:

“You shared all you had with me when I had nothing. That was much more.” His voice failed him, but he went on: “I have come to know what it means to have no home. But you saved me, every time. Home, for me, is not this house, nor any other building. It’s you.”

She needed a moment to regain her breath.

“You’d do this?” Jane asked. “You would – so that I can continue my work?”

“So you are no longer depending on anyone,” he said, their fingers slowly intertwining. “When we met, your science was your life. Whatever your life looks like now, you should decide. Not I, not anyone. If this helps you to be free –“

He didn’t get much further, as Jane had thrown herself onto him, kissing him with a vigour even an Infinity Gem could not have given her. She could feel his surprise, but when he kissed her back, it was with a calm passion, with a self-confident openness she hadn’t come to enjoy a lot of times yet. Jane then knew that he had understood her. What a strange, what a fantastic sensation.

“You mind?” she mumbled against his lips, tugging Thor’s shirt up a little. It was off him before she could tell if their kiss had broken even once in between. On the other hand, there was far too much handsome to distract her. How could any being become so broad-shouldered? Jane had never even thought herself to like that type. _It’s because of that big, sweet, kind heart underneath_ , she thought to herself.

“Hold on,” she murmured, growling as she had to detach herself for a moment from her gorgeous alien boyfriend, and reached over to the little nightstand, hoping Darcy had been her usual considerate self. She had.

Jane fished the small box out of the drawer whose contents were to make sure this night would not have any consequences in roundabout nine months.

“Okay, ready.”

This time it was Thor who chuckled.

“I do not think those will be necessary. Darcy explained to me what they are used for.”

He pointed at something inside his elbow. In the flicker of the candles, Jane could make out a tiny golden piece of metal implanted there.

“As long as this stays golden, I will not sire any offspring. Only the healers can deactivate it, and only with the king’s agreement.”

Jane snarled:

“I’m not gonna ask your brother for permission when we want to have a baby.”

Thor laughed at that, already busy kissing the side of her neck up and down.

“We can go ask immediately, if you like,” he grinned mischievously at her.

“Hey,” Jane grinned back, “not so quick. I’d like to accept my Nobel Prize before I ruin my figure forever.”

* * *

When Jane woke up the following morning (or almost noon, as her phone would tell her later), she did realise that something was decidedly different – and for the moment, flashed that feeling an imagined middle finger before snuggling back into the sheets and Thor’s arms. She hadn’t started a day so relaxed since a long, long time ago. Only then did she notice the difference. Remembered. Lifted the blanket a little, just to check if it hadn’t perchance been a dream. It hadn’t.

Before Jane could lose herself in memories, her stomach’s audible growl brought her back to reality. She reached over a calmly sleeping Thor to the other nightstand, where some of the biscuits had made it through to morning. The move hadn’t been very subtle, for Jane immediately felt Thor’s arms tighten around her. Letting herself fall back onto the pillow, Jane mumbled from beneath the biscuit:

“Hungwy?”

The way he kissed her, only to retreat with the other half of the biscuit and a smug grin on his face, Thor was definitely hungry. Little wonder, with his super quick metabolism and the long time that had passed since their last meal.

Jane’s next kiss didn’t need any motivation in shape of biscuits, although the thought of breakfast kept knocking at the thick walls of her brain.

“Mmmmmmshower…” she mumbled, freeing herself of the sheets and reaching for her bathrobe on the floor. She felt Thor’s gaze on her and grinned back at him. “You coming?”

He looked at her, then at his own lack of t-shirt, only to lift his eyes heavenwards and sigh “Thanks fate”. Jane laughed.

A quick shower later, dressed and by now positively ravenous, they raced each other down to the kitchen, with Jane winning just so because she bumped into Thor’s back and bounced over the doorstep.

“Oh my…” Jane said when she saw the kitchen table, or rather, could not see it under all the covered platters and bowls squeezed onto its surface, omitting a most delicious smell of freshly cooked food.

“Looks like we owe Darcy a very big favour,” Thor grinned, handing Jane a yellow sticky note he had found.

 _Hope you two can sleep in. Didn’t sound like you got much sleep last night. PS: What was so funny?_ , the note read. Jane grinned while helping herself to a large stack of apple pancakes she’d never be able to eat all on her own. Oops.

Instead of ordinary chairs, they had decided for a broad, couch-like corner bench for the kitchen table. Snuggled up in the corner, the best place by far, they munched Darcy’s delicious breakfast, for a moment too hungry and too content to do anything else.

“Shall we do something crazy?” Thor murmured into her ear when, finally, Jane leant against him, her full belly making her feel wonderfully sleepy again. She opened her eyes, just for a change knowing she didn’t have to worry about anything. Not anymore.

“Shall we tell everyone that we are betrothed to be wed?”

Jane felt a laugh climb up her chest. It felt so good.

“Okay. You call my mother and tell her.” She took her phone out of her sweater pocket. “And I’ll do this… smile!”

Minutes later, after having logged in with the password Darcy had given her, a cute picture of a smiling Jane and Thor crowned their blog, accompanied by a single line:

“We’re engaged!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a bit slow on writing at the moment, not much time etc, but I hope I can keep up with a weekly update.


	20. Chapter 20

“It doesn’t look as if he minded that there’s no back door,” Natasha said, looking out of the kitchen window. Or rather, looking out of it through the miracle of video chat.

“I don’t think so,” Jane replied, placing the laptop back on the kitchen table.

Natasha, Sam and Steve had called about ten minutes ago. Clint was busy getting on his wife’s nerves by pulling down another wall at the farm house, but had sent his best wishes as well as a picture of a donkey holding a piece of paper that said “Congratulations!”. According to the writing on the back of the photo, the donkey’s name was Ronald. Pepper and Tony kept it at a very pretty card, expressing their best wishes to the freshly engaged couple.

As it was a sunny morning, Thor had decided to do his daily workout in their backyard. Less obvious was how to reach that place, and if it was really just one place to begin with. The different landscapes visible from every room did not all appear to be connected, although the kitchen seemed to be a good overall guess.

There was no back door to be found, or at least not yet, so two days before, Thor had lowered Jane and himself out of the downstairs kitchen window to the pretty meadow, green and full of flowers despite December being in full swing. They hadn’t had time to go very far, just a little tour over the hills to the first trees of the forests stretching down to the coastline. It had been fantastic enough.

Jane had never been much into plants, but she was sure that a lot of those blossoms and leaves were not part of standard Earth flora. Neither had she ever seen the curious, pale blue birds, not much bigger than walnuts, that turned out to be tiny bats with very fluffy fur on a closer look. They kept away from the house, but Jane thought about putting out a birdhouse and see if the bats liked any fruit.

Yesterday the leaves of the trees had turned golden, orange and crimson, and as of this morning, had crumbled to a soft, rustling blanket on the ground. When Jane had opened the kitchen window, the scent of snow had lain in the air.

“He’ll be back soon, I hope. I have a bunch of pies in the oven,” Jane said.

Darcy added:

“Yeah, he should be able to smell those down a couple miles.”

“Unless he walks into one of those fairy circles down there,” Natasha said.

“What?”

“Fairy circles. Stones or trees arranged in ring-shape. They’re said to be portals to other worlds.”

Jane rolled her eyes. “We have a multidimensional house to manage, I’m sure Thor can deal with some fairytale stage props.”

Before Natasha could reply, someone went past her, only visible on the small screen of the tablet as half a pair of jogging trousers splashed with paint.

“Hi, Sam,” Darcy grinned. She was the only one not wearing similar attire. Jane had no idea how Darcy managed to stay paint-free, with all the decorating they had done during the last days, and still wearing her fancy skirts and blouses. At least Jane had been able to coax Darcy away from her beloved heeled boots and pumps with the rule that the house’s wooden floors were only to be trod with slippers.

Sam bent down to wave into the webcam, a box of kitchen utensils under his arm.

“Hey, ladies,” he smiled back. “Looks like it’s Avengers moving-places week. Clint is planning a tree house, Tony has decided to enlarge his workshop, and this guy is moving in with me. Steve? Phone!” he shouted. A moment later, Steve appeared on the screen, too, sitting down with Sam on each side of Natasha’s. Steve’s left cheek showed a big splotch of light blue paint. A nice shade, Jane thought. Maybe for Jay’s room…

“I’m just here because I’m bored and I love watching other people work,” Natasha said with a deadpan expression on her face. “Especially Steve.”

“Why me?”

“I know why,” Darcy grinned.

“You should move in, too,” Sam said to Natasha. “Then you can watch Steve make breakfast every day.”

Steve let out a frustrated growl. “You cook for someone _one night_ , and that’s what you get for it,” he said to Jane and Darcy.

Darcy threw her hands in the air, exclaiming:

“And they all cook!”

“Just once!” Steve shouted back, but even he couldn’t keep back the laughter.

Jane saw Natasha’s attention shift to something behind her and turned around, just to see Thor gracefully hop over the windowsill.

“Did I hear the word ‘breakfast’?” he smirked, taking the towel draped over a kitchen chair and wiping his face. More solemnly, he added: “It has been a while. I take it that you did not find your friend?”

“No.”

Before Steve felt obliged to say any more, Thor stated:

“Excuse me while I go upstairs for a shower. I will call you back in a moment.”

“Thanks, I’ll just… I need to finish the kitchen,” Steve said, disappearing from the tablet screen.

“Darcy – eyes up here,” Sam teased. At the sound of a closing door, the grin vanished from his face though. “He’s not okay, and it’s not getting any better,” he said quietly. “That’s why I’ve offered to share an apartment with him, and he didn’t even argue.”

Natasha said gloomily:

“I thought he’d get along okay, but since he’s known that this Bucky guy is still alive…”

“How about you?” Darcy asked.

“What?”

“Are you okay?”

With a face as if she had been personally insulted, Natasha replied:

“’Course I am.”

“And you?” Darcy said in Sam’s direction.

“I’m not as good a liar as she is.”

At the sound of the doorbell, Jane jumped to her feet, ignoring Darcy’s objection that she could go as well, and ran into the hallway. All she wanted to do was to hug the person outside for giving her this perfect reason to disappear – before Jane opened the door, anyway.

“ _Mother?_ ”

“Hello, Jane.”

It took Jane a full five seconds to gather her wits for a shaky “Do you want to come inside?”. Lady Beatrice didn’t look too shocked.

Darcy was still talking to the others when Jane showed her mother into the kitchen. After introducing everyone, she said:

“Lady Beatrice of M., my mother.”

The following silence, including Darcy staring with her mouth wide open in surprise, was something Jane was used to. Turning to her mother, she asked, an apologetic expression on her face:

“That wasn’t the correct address, was it?”

Beatrice sighed.

“It will do.”

“Lady Beatrice!” Thor smiled as he came back into the kitchen, hair still wet from his shower, phone in hand, but in bearing all princely as he leant over Beatrice’s outstretched hand. Jane glanced at the tablet screen, where Sam looked as if he wasn’t sure whether or not he was seeing a sitcom and Natasha hid her laughter rather badly. Steve was back, too, his expression similar to Darcy’s.

“You’re a _Lady_?” the latter hissed.

“I’m not, my mother is. I thought you knew that!” Jane mumbled from the corner of her mouth.

“ _How?_ ”

For someone who could quote the sales numbers of the chocolate industry of the past twenty years, tell Jane from the other side of the world where her left slipper was every time she lost it, and who had a photographic memory of every cute puppy they had ever met, Darcy did disappoint.

“I am sorry for dropping in unannounced, and I am afraid the delivery of the gift for your new house will not match my pace…” Beatrice started, turning to take in the half-furnished kitchen. They wanted to paint the walls once more before assembling the rest of the cupboards and putting everything in its place.

“That’s alright,” Jane said, feeling a tad queasy in her stomach. “Is there anything you like, a cup of tea…?”

“Yes, yes, splendid.” Beatrice carefully sat down on one of the chairs when Thor offered it to her. Jane bit her lip. The chairs were brand new and solid enough, no need to make such a show.

“Maybe we should say bye…?” Steve asked.

“Oh no, not at all,” Jane growled. She wouldn’t have Beatrice ruin their lunch with friends. “Mother, while the kettle’s boiling, would you like to see the rest of the house?”

“Yes, why not,” Beatrice sighed, obviously not very impressed by what she had seen so far. Jane told herself that she didn’t care. She hadn’t felt like giving the full tour through the house anyway.

Once they were out of hearing range from the kitchen, Jane said:

“Why are you here?”

Beatrice’s gaze could have frozen the Aetna.

“Jane, tact.”

“Noun, starting with the letter ‘t’. Why are you here?”

They had arrived at the entrance hall. Jane was more than aware of the half-finished paint, the crackling wallpaper under the ceiling and the stacks of buckets and paint brushes, paint-stained newspaper pages and plastic foil covers crumpled together and heaped up in the corner. She saw the oddly shaped doors, the windows of which not two had the same size, all the detail that didn’t fit with anything else around it – yet. Jane felt her jaw clench, proud. Proud of this crazy house that was so much her home already.

“I had to… well, after your rather _unconventional_ announcement of your engagement…” Beatrice said nonchalantly.

“What, mother?”

Jane wasn’t in the mood for solving riddles.

“I wish – I wish you hadn’t been quite so rash with such a decision.”

Ah.

“Why, because you make my life decisions now? Because, after twenty-five – thirty-two years, you’ve suddenly remembered you’re my mother?”

Jane was quite aware of her snapping tone, but she didn’t care. She had never had the courage to say these things, and it was high time. It had been high time years ago.

“I didn’t –“

“Good, because even if you had been, it wouldn’t have been your decision!”

The others could most likely hear her from the kitchen. It was okay.

“You know, I don’t get you. You wanted to set me up with the first guy ringing the doorbell, and now that I’ve found the love of my life, he isn’t good enough for you? He’s a _prince_ , he’s richer than Tony Stark, and you’re not happy? What, because he’s not human? Got a surprise for you, because neither am I!”

Visibly flabbergasted by this, Beatrice stammered:

“But Jane, I was worried… I thought you were… you know.”

Oh dear.

“The word is ‘pregnant’, Mother. No, sorry, no such good news.”

It may have been the first time that Jane saw her mother openly upset, but just for a change, she did not care enough to mark the day in her imaginary calendar. However, the shake in Beatrice’s voice when she continued marked her words as truth:

“I am sorry, I wanted to make sure. When your father and I… I did not want you to make the same mistake I made.”

“Mother –“ Jane took a deep breath in order to calm herself. “- I’m not a mistake.”

It had taken her all her life to realise that.

Only God knew what would have happened, had the doorbell not once more saved the moment, the day, and possibly every upcoming holiday dinner forever. With the charisma of an ice cube, Jane walked past her mother to open the door.

The sun went up when she saw Nick Fury on the doorstep.

“Nick!”

Before he could so much as reply, Jane had thrown her arms around the much taller man’s middle and hugged him as strong as she could. Which probably wasn’t very much, but it was the gesture that counted.

“And a good morning to you,” he laughed, patting Jane’s head. Her cheeks hot with embarrassment, Jane let go, awkwardly tucking her hair behind her ears.

“Sorry, uhm… wanna come inside?”

“Sure,” Nick smiled, handing her a small, gift-wrapped box. “And these are for you. I wasn’t sure if you liked flowers.”

“Is this chocolate? Oh my God! That’s so pretty!” Jane squeaked. Underneath the wrapping, she had glimpsed a set of tiny planets, the whole solar system, rendered in chocolate. “Thank you!”

Winking, Nick replied:

“I didn’t bring anything for your fiancé, he got spoilt enough with you.”

Almost too good in a mood, Jane walked Nick over to where her mother still did a bad impression of a bad statue. Before she could say anything though, Nick had taken that ordeal off her shoulders:

“Lady Beatrice! How long has it been, two years since… Venice?”

“Two and a half, in Monaco, Nicholas,” Beatrice replied as Fury gallantly kissed her hand. She hadn’t looked that delighted in a long time. Jane gave Nick a half-hidden smirk when she went past them back to the kitchen, and she was sure that he winked at her from underneath his eye patch. Genius.

“Hey boss,” Darcy received her, “we were just about to print your picture on milk cartons. Good to know you didn’t get lost in the broom cupboard.”

Jane looked at her in astonishment.

“We have a broom cupboard?”

“Yeah. It was a built-in shelf three days ago.”

They were interrupted by Thor holding up the tablet to them, on whose screen Natasha was waving goodbye.

“See ya, don’t let the fairies steal your cheese,” she winked.

“We don’t have any… do we?” Darcy asked.

“Not anymore, I think.”

“See?” Natasha shrugged, only to be pushed out of the picture by Sam carrying a giant plush teddy bear.

“Sorry, gotta get working or we’ll never get done today,” he grinned. “And this is Steve’s.”

“It’s not! I won it for you!” they could hear Steve’s voice, apparently from another room. Sam shrugged.

“Maybe he did.”

Steve returned, waving a quick goodbye. Darcy said:

“Bye, dorito.”

“Not you too!”

“And don’t forget, you all have to visit us for that dinner I promised to Tony,” Thor grinned.

“Right, he said something like that…”

“Rogers!” barked Jane.

“What?” Steve barked back.

“That football game is not over yet!”

“No, Ma’am!” he grinned.

Natasha pushed the teddy bear out of her way.

“But I’m in Jane’s team.”

“Not fair!”

While Steve and Natasha discussed, Sam sat down in front of the screen, saying apologetically:

“Yeah, they’re always like that. Can’t wait to see you all, take care, okay?”

“You too! You’ll come visit us soon, yes?”

Only some minutes after Darcy had switched off the tablet, Nick and Beatrice joined them in the kitchen. Lunch went by pleasantly enough, mostly because Nick and Thor both displayed amazing small talk skills. Even Darcy kept quiet. Jane found that quite unsettling.

They sat with tea and coffee when the well-known sound of an opening wormhole drowned out the voices of the birds outside. Once again very grateful for any excuse to leave the room, Jane zapped out of her chair to receive their guests.

She had hardly opened the front door when Sif ran past her with a hastened excuse Jane couldn’t quite grasp. How Sif knew the way to the kitchen would remain a mystery forever. They met Thor in the doorway.

“Thor, you must come immediately,” Sif exclaimed, slightly short of breath. “It’s your father! He is on his deathbed.”

His eyes widening in shock, he was about to follow Sif, who was already running back to the door, but stopped in his step.

“Go!” Jane shouted as he looked at her. “We’ll follow later!”

He was gone like that brilliant thought that happened to appear just before one fell asleep, never to return. Jane flinched when Darcy gently grasped her shoulders. She tried to make up for it by swiftly putting a hand on Darcy’s arm. No time for flinching now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of those chapters where you plan one or two small scenes, and before you know, the word count has topped 2k and you should find a good ending. Bleh! Of course The Narrative Must Go On, but the endless dialogues in between are what makes a scene fun and interesting (to write). Would you believe that I hoped to finish this within 25 chapters once...?


	21. Chapter 21

The second rays of the sun warmed the palace walls and brought them back to light after the long, dark night that had marked the king’s death. The first ones Thor had seen in his father’s chambers, heralding the end of the vigil he and Loki had held there. Now that he stood in the door to his own old rooms, he granted himself a moment of gratefulness for being able to enjoy this light before he went inside.

Careful so as not to wake Jane – the guards had delivered him a message that she and Darcy had arrived last night, not too long after he himself had hastened to the palace – he went on to the large terrace. All these heavy ceilings and pillars, he longed for some air.

It would take half the way until noon for the sunlight to strengthen, leaving the morning crisp and clear, yet soothingly pale. Even at sun’s highest point, the stars were visible through its rays, quite in contrast to Earth’s thick atmosphere. Thor had to admit to himself that he had missed the stars, these maps across the sky that were always there for quiet guidance. If it had not been for them…

“… sweetie?”

His eyes snapped open, and he straightened up to look over at a small chair in the corner of the terrace. Jane sat there, curled up under a thick blanket, rubbing her sleep-enthralled eyes. She must have dragged out the seat to look at the stars… wasn’t it too heavy for a human, and one as small as she was? What if she would have hurt herself, with nobody around to help…

She had saved the galaxy on her own a number of times, she would be able to deal with a chair.

Except Jane also managed to run head-first into Darkelves and intergalactic portals when nobody was around to remind her of when it was time for lunch.

He must have been very tired, for Jane was on her feet and by his side before he could so much as turn.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered as they embraced. Only now did he realise that it was this embrace he had craved like a sip of water after a day-long walk through the desert. Still, it hurt… no, no, that pain in his heart was something else, something he had suppressed all night: sorrow. Simple, hollow grief. He had not allowed it to surface when so much had been depending on his strength. Now, that he felt the first tears on his cheeks, the first tears since his father had died… he knew that just for once, just for this moment, it was alright. Jane would not mind, and much more importantly, she did not rely on him being strong. Jane was strong in ways he would never accomplish for himself. She had not just saved worlds, she had saved him so often, too.

She did now, when she said:

“Have you been up all night? You should go to bed, _now_.”

“Jane…”

“Shush.” Ever so softly, she placed the tip of her finger on his lips. “We can talk later. Unless it’s something you want to have off your chest.”

Instead of replying, he closed her into his arms once more. He had to be careful though, with the metal of his breastplate not just between them, but also preventing that he bent down so their shoulders would be on a level. Funny, how much he had become used to wearing soft, flexible clothing, allowing him to be close to Jane. It was an apt metaphor for how he had failed to remain close to his father, not to mention his brother, and maybe not with his mother either. Jane had been right to assume that he missed his family.

She took his hand now, pulling him back inside, where it was warm.

“Do you want to take a bath?” she asked. He shook his head. He would have fallen asleep in the waters.

This was another strength humans possessed: going without sleep for a night or two. They did not need as much rest as his people. The heir’s night-long vigil was an ordeal of mourning, of reference, but also a reminder of the hardships to come. He had not wanted Loki having to perform it on his own.

_Silence filled the king’s chamber, having replaced the faint golden shimmer that had accompanied the monarch during his lifetime. The darkness would not be broken until dawn. Tonight, no candles would be lit, no fireplaces nor lamps. For one night, the quietness settled over the city like a soft blanket of comfort in a time of sorrow._

“Sunset,” the queen had said as she rose from her place by her husband’s side for the last time. “The vigil begins.” Her demeanour calm as it had been for millennia, only the slight tremor in her hands as she laid them on her sons’ shoulders had revealed her true state of mind. With her, the last rays of sunlight had left the rooms.

_“You do not have to stay,” Loki said, not coldly, but not with warmth in his voice either. “The vigil is meant for the king’s heir.”_

_“There have never been two princes as long as the records last. There is no precedence for this,” Thor replied. “I will stay – with you – if you allow.”_

_He still was his father’s son, after all, but he would not tell Loki. Neither would he leave his brother alone in such an hour, and neither would he say so. Not when Loki finally, with a curt nod, granted him his wish._

_And thus the longest, darkest night began._

The prospect of finally being allowed to lie down on a soft, cosy bed was too overwhelming to admit any other thoughts. Only the soft tickling of Jane’s fingers on his forearm, where she tried to loosen the vambrace, reminded him that she was still there. A sensation of gratefulness flooded his heart.

“How does this thing get off?” Jane murmured through gritted teeth.

Feeling a small chuckle rise in his chest, Thor called the little bit of magic, one of the few spells he could perform, to make the heavy plate vanish. Stroking Jane’s cheek, he sank onto the pillows, telling himself that the heaviness of his heart had been caused by fatigue, by having grown too used to the ways of the humans, by his lack of strength.

_“You do not think that I will make a worthy king,” Loki said. “That is why you have returned.”_

_In the dark, there was no way to tell how much of the night had already passed. Clearly too much for both of them… or not enough._

_“I returned to be with my father in his last hour. I would not have left, had I thought you incapable of the throne.”_

Was it possible to be too tired to fall asleep? That was how Thor felt as he half-heartedly drew up the covers. Jane sat down next to him. Would she stay? He hoped that she would stay.

“Did you arrive well?” he asked. “Were you received properly?”

Thor’s greatest worry had been that, once again, Jane would not be treated with the honours she and Darcy deserved.

“Yes, yes, everything was fine,” she said, lying down so they could look each other in the eye. “Darcy wanted to stay with Jay, with the darkness and everything, and we met Betty and Bruce for dinner, but I wasn’t sure when you’d be back, so I asked if I could wait here… was that okay?”

Smiling in reply, he caressed her cheek once more, lifting his head with the last of his strength to leave a tender kiss on her tender lips.

“Sleep now,” she whispered. “And stop worrying. I’ll wake you up if anything important’s happening. Before that though,” Jane said with glinting eyes, “I’ll snap at anyone’s shins who tries to disturb you.”

* * *

Darcy waved a hello at the guards in front of the suite she was about to walk into, grinning from ear to ear as the man imitated her gesture for a walk-by high-five. She turned back to Jay, who was trying to keep pace with Darcy in her long, festive gown.

“He remembers me!” Darcy winked.

The coronation ceremony was about to start soon, before it would be followed by the funeral ceremony at dusk. Only a king could perform the latter, hence the haste. To Darcy, witnessing all these mechanics of an alien culture’s very heart was the most fascinating thing to her since the first season of “Lost”.

“Hey Lokster, hope you’re not decent, that’d be a disappointment,” she sang as they walked into Loki’s brightly lit reception chamber. As of tonight, he would have to move several floors up, for that was where the king’s quarters lay.

“What is it?” Loki sneered with an amount of annoyance in his voice that would have sufficed to scrub the floors of the whole of the palace, dragging behind him two servants who tried to adjust some odd bits and pieces of the puzzle that was his ceremonial suit of armour. Well, Loki probably had two dozens of those. That he wasn’t ready yet was most likely because he hadn’t been able to decide for one.

“Making sure you won’t fret over your make-up,” Darcy sneered back. “Wish I’d brought sunglasses though. All that blinge… hey, you wanna be our Christmas tree?” The perfect gift for all of them.

“Thor is busy, he asked us to fetch you,” Jay said with a hint of disapproval in the glance she gave Darcy.

Loki scoffed.

“What would my brother be busy with? One could assume it was _his_ coronation – again.”

“Trying to keep Jane from biting anyone while they fit a gown on her,” Darcy replied through munching a pretty scarlet-coloured piece of fruit from a bowl set up for guests. “He has Betty and Bruce with him, and they have their hands full.” A spectacle she had found amusing for five minutes, before she had volunteered to make sure the future king didn’t get cold feet. She should have knitted him some socks, just because.

“Are you nervous?” Jay asked, playing the mind-reader, although not a very skilful one.

“A fool not to be,” Loki growled. The servants had just finished his outfit, and he dismissed them with a stiff wave of his hand.

Darcy sighed to herself.

“How many times has it been, once? Twice? You’ve sat on that stone chair before, it’s not gonna grow feet and run away this time.”

She would have given a lot for the sight though.

“Twice. And I would not put it past my brother to have brought some of that itching powder you humans are so fond of.”

“He didn’t,” Darcy grinned, “but maybe I did.”

Loki replied with a scowl that looked almost hurt. Feeling a tiny little bit bad for her joke, Darcy cleaned her fruit-stained fingers in the small basin thoughtfully set up with the snacks and went up to Loki, reaching up so as to try to adjust his collar (and failing, as most of that piece of clothing consisted of metal apparently forged onto him).

“This time is different though. This time everyone wants you to succeed.”

Jay eagerly nodded her agreement. Loki was not quite so prepared to reply, for he visibly struggled to come up with his reply:

“Sure, my brother is tripping over his own feet in the attempt of proving how much better a candidate he is.”

“He’s trying to help you.”

What Darcy didn’t say was that everything Thor did dripped with guilt over having forced the burden of the crown on his little brother – his words, well, most of them. There was no actual crown. What Darcy suspected, but didn’t express either, was that most likely he thought his family was breaking apart, again, something he blamed himself for, again, and that this time he would do whatever he could to not let that happen.

All these super-aliens and their neuroses, Darcy cursed herself for not having studied psychology. She could have earned a fortune here.

“We will all help you,” Jay said. As she walked up to the two of them, Loki offered her his arm, and Darcy took the other. Together they left for the throne room.

* * *

The coronation was a very formal, overboardingly golden event which Jane mostly spent trying to keep herself from wibbling up and down on the balls of her feet. She simply did not have the ability to stand still for so long which everyone else seemed to have learned from statues. Had anyone ever suggested the idea of seats for the audience?

As her engagement to Thor hadn’t been announced officially so far, Jane stood with Darcy, Betty and Bruce at the base floor of the hall. Only the highest-ranking acquaintances of the future king were allowed to wait on the elaborate steps leading up to the throne, most of which Jane knew from the two occasions when they had helped Thor.

The queen herself stood one step beneath the actual throne, and when she handed Loki the sceptre, it was with the words – Darcy translated – that this was her last action in service of her husband, her last as queen. Jane wished she could have stood next to Thor in that moment, take his hand, make sure he wouldn’t be too alone up there by his mother’s side. Jane did so later, during the funeral, when she could hide her hand beneath the folds of both their cloaks.

It was the second time that she witnessed such an event, and Jane thought that Loki didn’t do too badly. Stern, with just the right amount of rigour and severity, he sent the funeral boat to the stars in precisely the right moment. She stood close enough, however, to see the slight shiver in his fingers, how he gripped the staff in his hands even tighter so as to hide it. Jane couldn’t help herself, she felt sorry for the man almost as much as she felt sorry for her love. Losing one’s father was something she didn’t wish to anybody. Losing one’s father without having had the chance to settle things – that was hell.

Had making Loki king been a good choice? The right choice? It hadn’t been Jane’s choice, that was for sure, except that Thor had asked her once again this morning if she still did not want to become queen. Of course she didn’t. But even she had thought… was it the _right_ decision? Obviously it wasn’t hers, for Thor had made it for himself long ago. Shouldn’t she have brought him back though? Wouldn’t he, with his good, big heart, his humaneness, his kindness… wouldn’t he have made the better king?

_Not for long_ , she thought to herself once more.

Jane was perfectly aware that she was a selfish person, that she wanted him for herself, but that wasn’t everything. No, he would not have been a good king, _because_ he was so good, _because_ he had chosen to walk a different path than the one given to him. And as far as she could tell, he had not been wrong about Loki, either.

If only Loki would stop being wrong about himself.

She had been angry at him. Oh, had she let it out on him, the first time they had met in person. He, arrogant despite his shackles of everything he’d done, and she, locked up in a guest room for no more than daring to be human. She had let him feel her anger, and he had _liked_ her for doing so. Somehow that had taken the tempest out of the ocean that was her soul. That, and the fact that he’d saved her and Thor from some Darkelves a handful of times, ignoring the consequences for himself… although that was probably all part of a ruse, so… for Heaven’s sake, the man was the cause of more headaches than tequila. They needed to find him a wife, and badly so.

Unfortunately, Darcy’s only contribution to that topic had been “Oh great, let’s get him on a dating show”. Decidedly not an option, no matter how much Tony Stark would have laughed (and earned with the commercials).

There was a feast that night, most of which Jane didn’t notice because she was too busy worrying about everyone. Jay hadn’t felt too well, so Sif had brought her back to her quarters. When she returned, the expression on her face didn’t speak of good news. Jane made a mental note to look after Jay when all of this was over.

Bruce turned out to be very popular with a whole cluster of court nobles eager to challenge the legendary Hulk they had heard so much about, while Betty tried her best to make polite conversation and keep the worst from happening. Here Jane would definitely not interfere, as for the first time since she had met him Bruce looked healthily annoyed, and not green at all.

Darcy did not need her help either. She seemed to have learned enough of the local dialect to converse with everyone around her, and the novelty of the alien guest from Earth with the odd set of manners had made her the centre of quite some attention very quickly.

Jane wished she could have sat closer to Thor, instead of halfway down the table. He was with his family – his mother and his brother. Sure, they needed him more now, but Jane couldn’t help feeling very bad for silently wishing him to be with her, too. This world, his world, was still almost entirely alien to her. The thought that Thor now had to face this world without his father in it, a constant all his long life so far, made Jane twist her legs into a tight knot so she couldn’t get up and walk over to him. She had to be there for him, in ways that would help him. Right now, all she could do was to not embarrass him. Keeping quiet seemed the best choice, and oh wonder, Jane was pretty good at shutting up.

“Is sulking into one’s dinner part of Earth etiquette?” a deep voice asked while two large hands lifted Jane up and gently let her thump down onto a seat between three of Thor’s old pals. The big one, what was his name, Voltage… Volstagg, he had an amazing amount of food assembled on the table in front of him and now started to push over bits and pieces for Jane to try – all of them bigger than what she’d usually consider a generous meal. She felt sick just looking at the sheer quantity of food.

“What is this, no appetite?” Volstagg continued.

“Let the Lady be,” the guy on Jane’s other side said, “her taste might be for other amusements.”

With that, he put an arm around her. Jane shook him off, but he kept trying.

“You should stick to your own words, Fandral,” the third one said. Hogun, that was his name. When Fandral pretended not to have heard him, Hogun leant back to signal at someone Jane couldn’t see behind all the huge extraterrestrials around her. She silently thanked him for the gesture either way, but even more so when the person the wink had been meant for turned out to be Sif.

“Would you like to retrieve your Infinity Gem, Jane?” she asked. Fandral removed his arm from Jane’s shoulders immediately. Quickly she climbed over the bench and attached herself to Sif’s arm, with confused glances from everyone around, except for Sif. Jane made sure to grab Gamora’s arm, too, who had just happened to pass quite accidentally. Now she felt a little better.

“Hey, would you mind –“ Jane’s eyes fell on three empty seats at the head of the festive table. “Where are they?”

Sif nodded at the doors, but her eyes lay on Gamora when she did so.

“They are where you have been summoned,” she murmured so only Jane could hear her. “You have an audience with your… how do you say? Your mother-in-law to be?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contrary to popular belief, Darcy never stopped the knitting. She donates whatever she doesn't need for herself to charity, where she is believed to either have a lot of assistants, or five invisible pairs of extra arms. Darcy Lewis's superpower is crafting, and the more glitter, the better.


	22. Chapter 22

Jane was not quite sure if having tea with the mother-in-law-to-be was a good idea in this particular night, at this particular time. She certainly could have imagined more cheerful occasions. Maybe earlier ones in the day, too.

Sif and Gamora accompanied her all the way up to the top floors of the palace, that is, Jane clung to their hands more than that they walked next to each other. Just this once, the gesture calmed her down – until a goat-horned shadow on a wall made her let go very quickly. Sif didn’t seem surprised, she stepped in front of Jane before Loki could so much as round the corner, while Gamora stayed close to her. It seemed to have been a reflex, for Sif stammered:

“I apologise, uh, your majesty, I thought…”

Loki chose to ignore her and looked at Jane instead.

“I will accompany Jane, Sif, and you should make sure that our guest will be comfortable,” he snarled with a nod at Gamora. Sif asked Jane:

“Are you sure you don’t want your Infinity Gem?”

“Tempting, but no, thank you.”

With a last cold look at Loki, Sif bowed lightly and led Gamora back down the corridor they had come. Jane turned to Loki, craning her neck once more to be able to see his eyes. The effort turned out fruitless, as his ridiculously oversized helmet hid his expression from the gloom that lay over the corridors up here.

“You should at least offer her to call you by your first name,” Jane murmured so only Loki could hear her. “You’re her friend.”

“From the notion that Sif does not do so by herself, I take that she does not think of me as such,” he snarled back just as quietly. “She is free to change that habit, as far as I am concerned.”

He held open the door to a large room for her which, as usual for this place, had been built in a half-open architecture that became a spacious terrace at one end. Maybe another reception room, Jane had no idea about these things, but the table of refreshments made it a good guess. She shook her head when Loki pointed at the alien equivalent of cheese and pretzels set up there. Loki poured himself a goblet of wine and knocked it down in one gulp.

“Long night, huh?” Jane asked.

“You cannot fathom how long,” he said, and it lacked his trademark amount of snark. “I am afraid that you will have to wait here for a while. My mother and my brother – your betrothed – have a lot to talk about.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m glad they’re finally talking.”

She tried to lift herself up to sit on the corner of the terrace’s balustrade, the safe bit where it was nested in the corner of a wall, but the endless folds of her stupid dress made that impossible. Jane gave Loki full credit for not laughing about her, especially when she pulled up a stool for assistance.

“I hope it’s going well in there,” Jane nodded at the door behind which she supposed the dowager queen’s suite lay, “last time it took him almost a week ‘till the nightmares stopped.”

She didn’t need to specify whom she was talking about. Unimpressed, Loki replied:

“For sure, they stopped? I remember those nightmares being the reason why I demanded separate chambers at the other end of the palace.”

Jane arched a brow.

“How long has this been going on?”

“My brother has not slept calmly ever since he saw his first battlefield.”

There had never been a better occasion to give Loki a seminar in human swear words, or at least there hadn’t been many, even considering that this was still Loki. _Change of topic, Foster, change of topic…_

“So… you don’t have any trouble sleeping, I hope?”

“Nothing unusual,” Loki said with the facial equivalent of a shrug, grantedly a difficult move in all that metal he wore. “We all live with our troubles differently.”

“Yeah… how was your pub night with Bruce?”

“Excuse me?”

Jane was very grateful for the pillar in her back when something dark and hairy landed next to her on the balustrade, making her start.

“Oh, hello! Who are you?” she asked the ink-grey cat. This one wasn’t too impressed by her presence, as it casually jumped to the ground and strolled over to Loki.

“Go away!” he hissed at the animal. Of course the cat answered by rubbing its chin against Loki’s shins. Huh. Pun.

“I’ve never seen any cats in this place before,” Jane said, trying very hard to bite back her grin.

“This one is from your world, it must have found a portal,” Loki snarled. “What an insufferable creature.”

“I don’t know, he kinda suits you.” At the sight of Loki’s face, Jane quickly added: “You look cute with a cat. Remember that in your search for the future Mrs Loki.”

“Very amusing.”

“Hey, uhm, Darcy told me this thing,” Jane smiled, hoping it would hide her nervousness. This had just been going so well. “Is it true that you have this holiday here where cats are given pancakes?”

He looked at her for a moment, brow raised, as if she had just asked whether there were stars in the sky.

“Yes. Why would that be so odd to you?”

“No, not at all. Uhm… you know, you don’t have to wait with me here, I’m sure you’d rather be at your party…”

“Jane, please. So far I had the impression that you are the bright one.”

“Not when it comes to partying. Not my field of expertise.”

Loki sat down on one of the sofas, and to Jane’s mild surprise, he took off his helmet, leant back and stretched out his long legs. Eyes directed at the ceiling, he did not even mind when the cat settled on his lap.

“Does the cat have a name?” Jane asked.

“Snowball.”

“ _Snowball_?” That was an odd choice. “Really, Snowball, the English word? I thought –“

Her words were cut off by the two large doors at the end of the room opening, bathing them in golden light, and the outlines of Queen Frigga between them. Jane hastened to jump off her unconventional seat on the balustrade, promptly had her legs caught in the ridiculous dress, and ended up as an ungraceful pile of golden silks and one fussy astrophysicist on the floor. Before she could so much as untangle herself, someone picked her up and put her back on her feet.

“Thanks,” Jane mumbled in Loki’s direction as she tried to perform first aid on her hairstyle. Without commenting on, and therefore definitely having noticed her messed-up curls, he walked behind her when they entered the queen’s chambers. Maybe not the best position if he tried to make sure she wouldn’t trip over her own feet again, but then, maybe all that Loki wanted was a good sight on the spectacle. He was the kind of guy who’d laugh over the classic banana peel on the floor. When nobody was looking, anyway.

Fate was kind to Jane at least in this aspect however. Neither did she stumble, nor was there any chance of falling, as her gorgeous alien Prince Charming stood ready just behind the doors to catch her.

There was no time for asking Thor how he felt (and Jane didn’t trust her own face-reading skills), as the queen was already ushering them all to a large reception area, warmly lit by countless candles and an enormous fireplace, and furnished with the most comfortable sofas Jane had ever tried. She had to resist the urge to curl up in Thor’s lap and have the nap she’d craved all evening very strongly. He put an arm around her though and pulled her close, and she couldn’t have been more grateful. It answered the biggest question of the night, as far as Jane was concerned, before it had even been asked: that they belonged together. Even here.

Still, Jane was far from comfortable. She wanted to say something to express her condolences to the queen about the loss of her husband – Oh God, she hadn’t said anything about that to Loki at all, had she? She should have – but wasn’t sure if she had to wait until she was addressed first. That was probably the case. Fortunately, Queen Frigga helped her there, for she sat down on another sofa as close to Jane as any possible and said warmly:

“I am sorry that we have to meet again under such circumstances, Jane, and just when there was such a happy announcement to be made.”

Jane gave Thor’s hand a grateful squeeze for having told his mother of his engagement. She really wouldn’t have wanted to do that now, when the queen had just been widowed.

“And I’m so sorry for your loss,” she hastily said. It sounded monotone and empty, but at least she’d said something. Queen Frigga didn’t seem to mind.

“Thank you, my dear. It is too sad that my husband can no longer rejoice in these news.”

Jane managed a crooked smile when she answered:

“I’m not quite sure he’d have agreed with me for a daughter-in-law.”

She felt Thor’s arm tighten around her, and it was good of him to do so, but it was the queen’s knowing chuckle that surprised her.

“Fathers tend to be very protective of their children, and when those grow up and want to get married, no spouse could ever be good enough. You will know, one day.”

“Mother, one thing after the other,” Thor said with a little smile. “We have not even spoken of the wedding yet.”

The queen sighed.

“Sadly, weddings will have to wait for the time of mourning to end. Unless, of course…” The queen turned to her younger son, standing still amongst the dancing shadows on the wall. “… you also decide to make your old mother happy by finding yourself a nice wife.”

Jane found herself rolling her eyes in unison with Loki. As it stood, mothers all over the universe seemed to be familiar with Jane Austen’s novels.

“My sons, if you do not mind, I would like to speak alone with Jane,” the queen said more earnestly. “No, Thor, do not look at me that way. I am relieved enough that at least one of you two will be wed, I shall not try to persuade Jane otherwise.”

“That’d be impossible,” Jane quickly whispered into Thor’s ear when he turned to her with a worried face. It seemed to relieve him, but still he hesitated on his way out. Loki was waiting for his brother on the threshold, doing his best to look annoyed by the delay. Only when the large doors had closed did the queen turn back to Jane. Not the most relaxing situation, after a not very relaxing morning, day, and evening.

“I hope you are not too tired, my dear,” the queen said warmly, which helped a lot.

“No, no, thank you. We slept in.”

“So I heard. I thank you for everything you are doing for my son – well, both of them.”

Jane didn’t quite know how to reply to that, given that she’d never done much more for Loki than showing him very clearly what she thought of him when he had introduced himself to her. She kept it at a crooked smile.

“You do not happen to have a sister, or someone else who might want to become my successor as queen?” Frigga asked with a deadpan expression.

“Not that I know,” was the best Jane could reply to that. Way, way too much like Earth.

“That is a shame.” The queen did something surprising: she filled a goblet with a honey-coloured wine, offering another to her guest before draining her own cup. Jane shook her head. Frigga left the second goblet by Jane’s side either way. Maybe she thought that Jane would want it later. Oh well. If that didn’t promise a nice, relaxing evening.

“I will not hide from you that I hoped to see you become queen, nor that I still think you fully capable of the position,” Frigga continued after having placed her goblet back on the table. “Neither will I deny that I am relieved to see the burden go to someone else.”

The surprises took no end tonight. Once more Jane found herself at a loss what to reply, but maybe that wasn’t necessary, for Queen Frigga had leant back in her seat, her gaze directed at the ceiling.

“What I am about to tell you, only my husband knew of. I do not mind my sons to know, but I would ask you not to speak of this to my niece. Not while she is in such a fragile state of mind.”

Jane nodded. Although it wasn’t a good idea to wrap Jay in metaphorical eider down, there was no use to upset her with things of the past while she was still sick.

“This is about her mother, isn’t it?”

“Yes, some of it,” Frigga said. Her voice had taken on a light note that spoke of how far back in time her mind was travelling. “It is about a princess named Frigga, who, being the younger one of two sisters, was to leave her beloved home world Ria, her family and everyone she loved, to marry the crown prince of a faraway planetoid. She had never been separated from her sister for so much as a day in her life, and as her marriage would be the ink underneath a freshly cast declaration of peace between Ria and the prince’s realm after millennia of discord, she had never seen those strange lands before.

“Rumours of the prince being half an ogre reached her ears, that he had won the throne through the dubious disappearances of his older half-brothers, and other such stories. They frightened the princess. Much more though, they frightened her older sister, who was betrothed to a nobleman she had loved for a long time, and who would dwell in beautiful Ria, with her daughter receiving the crown after her. This princess could not bear the thought of living in happiness when her little sister was to meet a future so uncertain. And so…”

Jane felt her eyes widen. “You pretended to be your sister to change places with her. You married the foreign prince and… came here.”

Frigga lowered her head.

“Fate is not to be tricked, not even by twins as perfectly alike as we were. My nobleman discovered the truth, and he made my poor sister feel how much he felt betrayed for as long as she lived. I, on the other hand, was so fortunate as to have been married to a man who treated me with honour, and who became my friend. I would say that there was love between us, the love of three times a thousand years of companionship. He never begrudged me for not giving him a son, and instead hoped to make me happy by adopting a child. And when he returned to me after a long time of struggle with the Frost Giants, our Loki a tiny bundle in his arms, only to discover that a son had been born to us while he had been away, all he did was laugh that now we had been blessed twice at once.”

For the first time, sorrow crept onto the queen’s face, revealing the thinness of her calm.

“That is how I have chosen to remember my husband. How he, weary from his dire journeys, placed our two sons in their cradle and smiled down at them, full of warmth and love. That he shared this smile with me, and no-one else. It took until that moment, almost precisely two thousand years after we had been wed, that I stopped thinking of the time when I would leave.”

Jane started. “ _Leave_?”

“That was what I demanded as my wedding present: my freedom, once there was an opportunity.”

So that was what had happened when Malekith had dropped by. Things started to make sense. The queen continued:

“By that time, I had not wanted to leave behind my family, but the spell had already been cast and I could not break it quickly enough. There was nothing for me left when I could finally find the strength to return: my sister no more in this world, my husband having fallen into an eternal sleep…”

Her instincts screaming not to do it, Jane put her hand on the queen’s. The gesture took all her self-control, all her energy, but it was the only reply Jane could think of. All she could hope was that it had been the right choice.

For a moment, nothing happened. Jane’s nerves could not have been strained any further. Then, finally, Frigga’s fingers lightly curled under hers, and the queen exhaled sharply. No more than a pointed blink later, she had regained her poise of seemingly relaxed elegance, quite as if all they had been talking about was the weather (sunny with a chance for alien encounters). Awkwardly Jane pulled back her hand, pretending that she was grasping for the goblet by her elbow. For once, luck was with her, and she didn’t accidentally push the thing over to spill all the wine over her dress.

“I hope you do not mind so much that I have burdened you with this knowledge,” the queen said. Jane looked up from the goblet, which she had been staring into, rather than drinking from it. “I wanted you to understand. My sons know about the spell, but not quite about the agreement between their father and me which led to it.” The queen laughed quietly, and it sounded sad. “Loki even adapted the spell for himself, and still he would not have expected that I had used it before him. Maybe it was fortunate that only one of my sons showed a talent for magic.”

She hadn’t touched any of the stuff in the decanters all night, yet Jane felt dizzy as if she had done so when the words left her mouth:

“Can’t he use any magic at all?”

“None of his own. At first this worried us, but he seemed happy and healthy, so we told him it did not matter.” With traces of resignation in her voice, the queen sighed: “Of course in the end it would turn out as if we valued magic less than other talents, my husband especially – but that Loki would misunderstand it so much…”

Jane bit her lip. That was something she’d have preferred not to discuss.

“My husband thought that he could tutor Thor better while he could not teach Loki a lot, and so I did. He did not love his son any less, in fact, we often agreed that Loki took after him very strongly. It was only half in jest.”

That, however, Jane agreed with. She gave herself some credit for feeling a tad bad for Loki. Just a tad. She had set limits to her pity.

“I’m not… uhm…” Oh dear. How was she supposed to say this? “I have this… disease thing, or I think I have it. It’s not something that can be spread or cured, it’s just there and…”

Queen Frigga’s face showed honest worry, but then she interrupted:

“Thor has explained your special kind of shyness, if that is what you would like to tell me.”

Jane could have hugged her in relief, and her wonderful boyfriend for being, well, wonderful.

“Yes. I’m pretty awkward with people, talking and so on. I’m bad at memorising faces and names, I don’t know how people feel sometimes, or how I’m supposed to react to that… a lot of things like that.”

“Well, then others need to be more direct with you. It is something one should notice when meeting you for the first time,” the queen smiled. “But that can hardly be called a disease. We do not expect a blind man to see because it would be more convenient for us, rather than taking care of accommodating his needs. Please tell me that my son treats you well, especially concerning this aspect.”

Vehemently swallowing her tears, Jane nodded. “He’s wonderful. I’ve never met anyone… well, I’ve never met a human like him.”

“Good.”

Suddenly a thought made Jane frown.

“Even Loki is nice to me… at least since I explained it to him.”

“Is he?” Even the queen seemed surprised. “Then maybe my lessons have not all gone unheard.”

“I don’t think so. They’re both good men – well, they can be, if they just want to. I saw it happen for one of them, and I don’t see why the other shouldn’t be capable of the same change for the better.”

The miracle happened, and for once, what Jane had thought and put into audible words seemed to be just the right thing: the queen smiled gratefully at her.

Of course they had to be interrupted.

“Snowball!” Queen Frigga exclaimed when an ink-grey, cat-shaped shadow landed on her knees. Immediately Snowball jumped up again, hunting an invisible insect only cats could see. Rolling her eyes, the queen rose to her feet, scooped a hissing bundle of cat into her arms and showed it the way to the terrace.

“Loki is not here,” she told the animal before it vanished in the darkness outside. Jane frowned. Didn’t Frigga know that her son couldn’t stand cats?

“… you haven’t told him that cats prefer to go to people who don’t like them, have you?” she asked.

Queen Frigga shrugged.

“You have to seize an opportunity when it presents itself to you. Being queen is rarely ever amusing.”

But sometimes, apparently, it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating quite so often, I just have a lot to do. I'm also trying to get a bit more pace and comedy back into the story... well, I _try_.


	23. Chapter 23

Jane was quite sure that after everything that had happened the day before – a coronation, a funeral, a feast, and finally all that smalltalk with her future mother-in-law – she deserved to sleep in. Well, she did, but Thor apparently had a different schedule.

“Mmmgrmbl” she growled when she felt him snake his way out from underneath the covers and their trademark cuddle. When that made Thor stop, Jane wriggled up to him once again, giving him a sleepy hug. She gave off a happy little meowing when she felt Thor return the gesture.

“Just five more minutes,” Thor’s shirt got to hear from where Jane had snuggled into it. All egoism aside, from all that she had learned last night, Jane had decided something for herself: someone needed to make sure that Thor wouldn’t overpower himself in his tries of keeping his family together and who-knew-what-else he thought to be his duty. If that included playing the clingy girlfriend, then Jane would do so precisely. Especially if there was extra cuddling.

“I cannot say no to that,” he replied quietly, and she could hear the smile in his words. Good. Smiling was good. Jane bit back a little giggle about how formal Thor’s language sounded again after just one day at his home place. Must be a grammar thing.

“I gotta learn your language,” Jane mumbled.

“Right now?”

“Mm… in five minutes.”

Thor chuckled, ruffling through her hair. “I am sure that it will not take you any longer than that.”

“No pressure there, huh?”

He laughed at that, hugging her even closer, digging his face into her hair to kiss her cheek and managing to tickle her side until Jane couldn’t stop herself from giggling so wrigglingly that the mountain of covers she had lived under for the past hours fell off.

The whole process of bathing, being styled, dressed, and hung with jewellery like a Christmas tree by a fluttery cloud of maids left Jane hungry enough to be quite snappy toward the end of the procedure. Still, when she returned to the morning room, Thor was already sitting there in his perfect prince attire, talking calmly to Bruce Banner. Jane wanted magic clothes that just attached themselves, too.

“Morning,” she said whilst piling a delicious-smelling heap of breakfast onto a plate next to Betty’s and starting to eat. Only when the other three joined in did Jane realise that they seemed to have waited for her. Nice of them, but entirely unnecessary.

Far too loaded with an odd mix of early-morning-fatigue and early-having-been-brushed-against-the-line-bristliness (not to mention hunger) to speak any more, Jane opened but half an ear to the conversation around her.

“The climate seems to suit you,” Thor said to Bruce, “you look well-rested.”

“Well, it’s warm and, uh, sunny?” Bruce said.

Normally Jane wouldn’t have let anything keep herself from concentrating on her food unless it was decidedly astrophysical, but then, her boyfriend was decidedly astrophysical in some way. Gulping down honey-drenched bread and something that tasted a little like cherry-and-pomegranate mousse, Jane sneaked little gazes at Thor. He didn’t look as heartbreakingly sad and tired as he had last night, a mask most likely. But then, for a man who had just lost his father, that was normal. Not relieving at all, but normal.

“And he’s got so many friends now! I’d be envious, if they didn’t all think we’re married.”

Betty’s cheeky remark earned her an annoyed grumbling from Bruce:

“On Earth nobody invites me to a party ever, and here everybody invites me to everything.”

“What is easier?” Thor asked. For a moment, Bruce stared at him with a flustered face, then he said:

“I don’t know. It’d be nice to be seen as who I am, not just as the other guy.”

Jane thought her ears would melt under her blush when Thor’s gaze quickly passed her with the words:

“That will not happen in either world, or any other. That can only happen in family.”

“Yeah.” Bruce looked at Betty. “But as much as I miss the other guys and Tony’s terrible fitness drinks, maybe this vacation wasn’t such a bad idea.”

Feeling rather awkward, Jane pretended to be completely absorbed in pushing some buttery-soft meat from one side of her plate to the other. She had forgotten how rich the food here was, and after the first slice of toasted bread promptly felt as if having eaten a handful of bricks. Jane had no idea how Darcy could like the cuisine here so much. On the other hand, her intern would be the first person Jane would think of if science ever prove humans to be capable of eating rocks.

The doors opened right on cue to present a considerably self-important-looking Darcy, clad in a fabulous dress of pale gold and dark violet, carrying a tablet in one arm.

“Morning, boss and everyone else,” Darcy said curtly. She sat down next to Jane, pulled over her plate and started to clean it off efficiently whilst reading from the screen: “I’ve checked on Jay and she’s not much better but the healers will look after her for the next hours, Loki is complaining that the throne needs a cushion and he’s told me to remind you –“ She looked at Thor. “- that you have an appointment on the sparring square as of right now, Sif wants to have another go at Infinity Gem training and I’m here to remind you that I brought your book and it’s still in my room… oh, and about twenty people asked if Bruce wants to have a drink with them. Whatever you’re doing, dude, you’re doing it right.”

Bruce groaned, massaging the bridge of his nose, while Betty was too fascinated by Darcy having managed to eat all of Jane’s remaining breakfast during her speech. Jane decided that she felt proud of her intern.

“Cool, uhm, is Sif coming here or can I find her somewhere?”

The answer to her question was a clear “no”, confirmed by the doors opening once again for nobody else than Sif. She marched straight up to the table, snatched the meat-stuffed bread roll out of Thor’s hand which he had just wanted to bite into, let herself fall onto the couch next to him and Bruce, and started to eat ravenously.

“I’m famished,” she declared with a full mouth.

“So was I,” Thor grumbled, standing up and walking over to the other sofa, where he carefully placed Darcy, busy with her second helping, a little further to the side before lifting up Jane and sitting down with her on his lap. They may all have fit onto the couch together with Betty, but Jane didn’t mind. This way, she could make sure that both her fiancé and her intern got their breakfast. Managing an interstellar patchwork family, Jane Foster version.

“Training with Gamora all morning,” Sif mumbled between some pastry and a honey cake, “she is sleeping now, but I have duties.”

Handling job and relationship at once, the eternal, universal conundrum.

It could have been just that, a nice, quiet breakfast… if not for the sparkly-green cloud suddenly materialising in front of them all. Loki’s appearance was met with collective eye-rolling.

“Good morning, brother,” Thor said. “I have received your message, and –“

“You are late,” Loki snapped.

“I have guests, as you can see.”

“You are idle.”

Darcy interrupted them:

“Get your bony ass over here and sit down with us, for Heaven’s sake.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to intrude in your cosy round of –“

“Okay,” Darcy said, weighing a particularly juicy piece of fruit in her hand, “then breakfast comes to you.”

“Darcy, that is just –“ Thor began, but too late. Darcy had already thrown the fruit at Loki, where it passed his shimmering hologram and splotched down onto the floor. “… an illusion.”

“On the point, brother, albeit not on time,” Loki remarked.

“Speaking of time,” Betty said, lifting herself up from the sofa, “maybe we should go.”

“Good idea,” Bruce added.

Panicking at the lack of words in her head, Jane stammered:

“No, but, you don’t have to –“

“That’s okay,” Bruce replied. “Nice to see you, Loki.”

Darcy snarled:

“Hey Loki, why don’t you take Bruce on a sightseeing tour while Betty disappears in the gardens for another day? You two must have so much to tell each other.”

“Thank you, but I do not have any time for such leisure.”

Jane wanted to feel bad for Bruce, but to her surprise he looked quite calm when he said to Betty:

“The first alien who doesn’t want a pub tour with the Hulk. I’m starting to like him.” He turned to Loki. “Are you sure you don’t want to go for a drink?”

The expression on Loki’s face was answer enough. Betty chose the moment for her and Bruce to disappear to whichever garden they had on their schedule today, while Loki turned back to his brother:

“There, your guests have left. It is time for our training.”

“Since when are you so eager on having your behinds kicked?”

Instead of replying, Loki said to Sif:

“And I expected _you_ to be on the training grounds already.”

“As your majesty wishes,” Sif growled, tossing the meat she had been taking hearty bites of onto her plate and stomping out of the room. Her heels caused a cacophony on the metal-covered floor. Well, everyone had their ways of dealing with mourning, and apparently sticking to his routines was Loki’s. Jane said:

“Fifteen minutes, Loki. I got up too late, so we haven’t finished breakfast yet.”

“Just fifteen?” Thor murmured, lightly kissing her neck. “You want to be rid of me so quickly?”

She leant back, snuggling into his arms. “Fifteen minutes until I’ve come up with a plan how we can both sneak out.”

Loki asked Darcy:

“How do you express such a situation in your language?”

“The common idiom is ‘get a room’, but technically these _are_ their rooms, so… you should wait. Read a book.”

The mischievous smile that rolled over Loki’s lips triggered Jane’s curiosity.

“While we are talking of books… Jane, I thought you might find these interesting.”

A stack of gigantic tomes thumped down into the side of Thor’s lap upon which Jane didn’t sit. His suit of armour blocked the worst, but Jane was tossed into the air none the less. Quickly she made sure her precious fiancé hadn’t been damaged.

“Astronomical accounts on our solar system, and some lighter reading for your studies of the connections between the worlds,” Loki said with a very self-satisfied smile. “My brother may entirely forget about his betrothed’s needs whilst he is busy with his princely duties, but I am not that heartless.”

Thor was about to growl something less civil, but Jane was quicker:

“I can’t read these.”

“Which is why I have allowed myself to schedule lessons with this world’s most excellent scholar of languages for you – another thought my dear brother will have missed in all his busyness.”

Okay, that was enough.

“I hope you’re not trying to propose to me now, too,” Jane sneered.

“ _Please_. I am not desperate.”

Jane pouted:

“Nor particularly charming.”

* * *

Darcy breathed a sigh of relief when the two brothers finally got their royal annoyingnesses out of the room. Jane had decided that she wanted to accompany Darcy in looking after Jay, as that was more important than any teach-yourself-alien-speak classes. As much as Jane wanted to read through the whole palace library, learning a whole new language took far too long for her squirrel-sized patience, especially when there was an intuitive hologram library, too.

Either way, what they needed to continue Jane’s research was hand-collected data of the local stellar constellations, the solar system, its planets and moons, so that it could be analysed in ways understandable to humans. The books had just been Loki’s way of being a nuisance to his brother, not something that would help Jane with her work. He could be such a pleasant fellow.

An audible clamour greeted them before they could so much as knock at Jay’s door. Typical, Darcy growled to herself. All the healers had had to do was making sure that the little dragon could get some sleep for two or three hours, but instead it sounded as if they were assembling washing machines.

“What’s going on here?” she asked the first of the healers running past her feet as they went inside. Knocking was audibly out of question.

Instead of replying, the other woman cast Darcy a scared gaze and continued on her way.

“That bad?” Jane asked. She and Darcy exchanged a worried glance before quickly following the healer.

“Wow.”

That was all Jane in her inimitable eloquence said. She did have a point though.

Jay had changed back into dragon shape. Grey scales covered her from head to toe, long black talons adorned her hands, a set of gazelle horns poked the pillows and the wings did not look like something that one could comfortably wear during a nap.

“She woke shortly after you had left,” the queen said. She sat bent over the sleeping shape of her niece, her fingers weaving a glowing spell while she spoke. Darcy felt the magic prickle on the skin of her face.

“What happened?”

Later-on she would have to translate the whole conversation for Jane, Darcy realised when she replied in the queen’s language. Maybe she should have left her boss to her lessons.

“My niece is no shapeshifter. This is who she is, not what magic has made her appear to be for so long.” The queen tenderly tucked a stray strand of wispy hair behind Jay’s slender, pointy ear. “I had long suspected that there was a spell similar to the one we cast over Loki, but not one so strong. It only masked her without influencing her true appearance underneath. The magic is fading, too, and my poor niece… she is not taking the news easily.”

A raging dragon in the house was a novelty here for sure.

“Can we do anything?”

The queen shook her head.

“She will sleep a little longer, and hopefully be a little calmer then. If it is not too much to ask, I will send for you when she wakes.”

“Yes, no, that’d be great. Thank you, uhm… we’ll go then.”

That was almost as eloquent as Jane’s introduction.

Darcy gave Jane the gist of what had been said when they went down the endless palace corridors, perfect for aimless meandering when one didn’t have anything better to do. Jane didn’t look particularly upset when she heard about Jay’s condition, but then, Jane never looked upset. That was the challenge.

“She’s gonna feel better when she has her Infinity Gem back though,” Jane suggested. “And, I don’t know, maybe Doctor Kapoor…”

“You can’t just send any alien with a serious depression to your household doc,” Darcy gave back.

“Yes I can, when neither we nor her family nor any of these oh-so-clever healers can do anything for her,” Jane snapped. “What else do you want to do, let her continue to suffer? Just in case you didn’t know: it sucks.”

“Yeah, okay, don’t eat me.”

Somehow their way had brought them to the training grounds. A number of terraces and balconies led down to a large, sandy area where dozens of men were swinging wooden poles and swords, most of them making very sure not to get in the way of the only woman in their midst. The single effect a second round of training seemed to have on Sif was that she became even scarier.

The main attraction of the morning, however, were the two royal brothers practising sword moves in the centre of the square. Darcy manoeuvred Jane to a comfortably padded bench on a terrace in perfect position to watch the spectacle. She stopped a servant who carried a handy trayful of drinks and pushed a goblet into Jane’s hand, taking one for herself, too.

“You guys still don’t have popcorn here, do you?” she asked the servant.

“I am afraid the cooks have not yet been able to fulfil your wish, Lady Darcy.”

“One can’t have everything.”

Jane cast her a suspicious glance which Darcy chose to ignore. The alien language wasn’t that hard to understand, especially if it contained words such as “popcorn”.

“When do you think they’ll go shirtless?” Darcy nodded at Thor and Loki, who, after at least an hour of training, looked quite sweaty in the morning sunshine.

Jane ignored her.

“Why is he doing this?”

“Who, Loki?” Darcy squinted at the small, green- and black-clad figure in the court, trying to make out his facial expression. “Showing off, I suppose.”

“Against his men, maybe, but Sif and Thor? They won’t let him win just because he’s king now.”

Darcy shrugged. “He doesn’t have any other friends, does he?”

“Well, he’s lonely enough to be nice to me even when Thor isn’t around, so… maybe?”

That would explain why Loki hopped around anyone he saw like a puppy. A constantly snarling, sneering, scrawny puppy with a liking for bad hairstyles.

“And there goes the heavy metal! Ten points to Darcy!” she grinned. The shirts were still in place, but as she had said to the sparkly waiter, one couldn’t have everything. “Looks like someone has been to the gym.” Not quite so scrawny a puppy anymore, maybe.

Jane chuckled.

“What do you think Frigga will say when we tell her that Loki has discovered bodybuilding, and Thor is turning into a bookworm?”

“She’ll not allow you any more of that wine,” Sif’s voice said.

Both Jane and Darcy jumped a little.

“Enjoying the sight?” Sif grinned.

“Sif, hadn’t noticed that you’d finished,” Jane urged herself to smile. “Do you want to try the Infinity Gem again?”

“Not now. I need a break. In the afternoon, if that suits you.”

“Sure.”

The arrival of a messenger had interrupted the brothers’ dance in the square. Apparently higher duties called, as a moment later they prepared for leaving the training grounds. Somehow Thor seemed to have noticed his audience on the terrace though, for he waved and started to walk over to them. The silly smile Jane wore when she waved back was worth the ticket. Those two were so ridiculously in love, Darcy couldn’t help but be happy for them in every possible way.

Of course Loki had to trail behind his brother as they came over. Sure, the sight wasn’t so bad, but looks weren’t everything. Where was Snowball when one needed an angry cat to annoy one’s ex?

Accidentally she caught Loki’s eye when he rolled those over Jane and Thor sharing a loving kiss right in front of him. Darcy quickly looked away and instead said:

“So, is anyone interested in a nice round of ‘What’s my name’ after dinner tonight?” She dug the small pad of yellow sticky notes out of the pocket of her terribly practical, flowy dress. Always carry sticky notes with you, first rule of managing stationery. “Second rule of managing stationery: never waste a pretty notepad when you can just use the boring basic stuff.”

When nobody seemed to understand, Jane still being caught up in whispering lovebird-y whispers to her Prince Charming, Darcy quickly hid the little chunk of paper in her pocket again. With her best “nothing happened” smirk, she winked at Sif:

“Say hi to Gamora from us, okay? Will we see you two tonight?”

“I thought so.”

Loki said:

“Maybe she could help you choose a gown.”

Sif chose to ignore that remark, walking down the gallery behind the terrace rather stiffly. Jane murmured:

“I thought Sif didn’t wear any dresses.”

“She may make an exception.”

“Can we make an exception for me and allow jeans at the banquet table?”

Duty called for the two brothers, who had to shower and dress before their next appointment. Jane wanted to go with Thor and retrieve her laptop so she could get a little work done, whatever that meant, and Darcy agreed on the premise that they would meet at Jay’s after that. She didn’t want Jay to wake up on her own. The more familiar faces told her that everything was alright, the better.

Queen Frigga, although adamant that she would stay as long as needed, had a hard time trying to hide how relieved she was when Darcy and Jane arrived. Darcy doubted that Frigga had slept the last night, or the one before. Once the queen had left, Darcy settled in a chair next to Jay with a book and some hearty nibbles, from time to time shushing at Jane who was tinkering with her laptop, the set of impossibly tiny screwdrivers, and what looked liked a mess of chewing gum paper, screws, tape, actual chewing gum and things that went dingdong. At least nobody would have to fear bad breath.

The night Thor had made his hasty return to his parents’ place, Jane and Darcy had tried to pack as many useful things as possible before following him. Well, Jane had also given Nick a huge speech about all the things he had to mind about the house, before he had shoved her out of the door with the promise not to get lost on the second upstairs corridor that had just appeared last week. While Jane had tried to stuff half her lab into one sad-looking backpack that had seen more of the world than some people in all their life, Darcy had made sure to think of the necessary things: snacks, Jay’s headphones, everyone’s books, the sweatshirts Jane used to disappear in when she was stressed out, iPod, tablet, _all_ the stationery, powdered coffee, Darcy’s unbreakable coffee mug and a jar of crafting glitter in case Loki misbehaved. She was very pleased with herself for having thought of the sparkly rainbow unicorn slippers. So comfy after all that wandering through the palace.

As these things tended to go, the relaxing break did not last long. Jay started to toss around on the pillow, mumbling incoherently, and Darcy put her book away. She tried to quietly alert Jane where she was sitting on the floor, surrounded by her spare parts and tools, but once an astrophysicist, always lost in space. Darcy wouldn’t have been amazed if Jane’s laptop would shortly start to spit out toast. Maybe Jay would like some breakfast…

“Hello sweetie. Did you sleep well?” Darcy cooed when Jay blinked tiredly. For about five seconds she seemed okay – then she saw her own scaly, be-talon-ed hand. Poor, poor little dragon.

It took Darcy far too long to calm Jay down so far that the linen was no longer in danger of ending up shredded – those talons were sharp – but only because Jay was crying big reptilian tears again. She did not want to be hugged, she cowered in a corner as far from anyone as possible.

“It’s not bad to be a reptile,” Darcy tried for the tenth time. “You look great. Those wings are amazing, and I wish I had those horns whenever I go to the dentist. Though I wouldn’t, with those fangs.”

“You’ve never been to a dentist,” Jane mumbled absentmindedly. Darcy would have liked to throw some toast at her.

“Jane, would you mind putting away your Iron Man starter kit and help me here?”

“I gotta call my mother.”

“And I’m so glad the sky is purple. _Hello_? Darcy to Jane? Are you even hearing what I say?”

She had to grant one thing to Jane: their way of talking with each other was giving Jay a feeling of normalcy.

“I should have this any moment…” Jane mumbled more to herself than anyone else.

“You could have tinkered with your laptop all morning, why –“

Jane did the incredible and looked up from her miniature torch for a moment. The expression on her face could have frozen Frost Giants.

“Because I just thought of how to do it half an hour ago. It’s actually quite simple, you take the equation for –“ The expression on Darcy’s face made the astrophysicist stop mid-sentence. Instead Jane said: “I gotta call my mother and make sure she hasn’t started an argument with the house over frilly curtains, or whatever else she’d do to the poor living room.”

“I’m sure Nick will know how to prevent any frill from decorating your living room.”

“The way I know my mother, she’s already made Nick wear a kilt.”

Darcy’s eyes widened before she yelled:

“You get that wifi going!”

Maybe Jane was much cleverer at manipulating people than anyone thought. She was definitely cleverer than herself, for a moment later the sound of her own ringtone made her jump.

“Uhm – hello?” Jane stared at the screen of her laptop. “Sam!”

“Oh God, I’ve been trying to reach you for ages. Where are you? Oh. I think – is that _space_?”

Jane carried the laptop over to the bed and sat down next to Darcy, so they could both talk to Sam. Jay had fallen into a light slumber again.

“Yep. Well, not space, but a lot of space away from Earth,” Jane said. “What’s happened?”

“What’s happened to _you_?”

“Thor’s father has died. We’re here for the funeral.”

One had to hand it to Jane, she was good at giving summaries of very complex things. Not a trait she shared with many scientists.

“Ah, that’s bad. Tell him I’m sorry, will you?”

“Sure. I’d get him, but he’s busy with all kinds of official stuff and this palace is so huge, it may take some hours to find him.”

“Uhm, Sam?” Darcy interrupted. “Why are you calling?”

“Doesn’t matter, I’ll call back later, when you’re back and everything.”

“We have no idea when that’s gonna be and if Gyro Gearloose here can keep up the connection until then, so you better tell us now.”

Sam sighed.

“I don’t know… it’s about Steve. He’s not okay. He’s never been as far as I know him, but then I still thought it was the common stuff we discuss in the self-help group. Steve is getting worse though.”

“Is this about that friend of his who disappeared?”

“Still no trace. We’re out there, looking for clues all the time, but he’s getting frantic. Doesn’t sleep, can’t relax… I caught him snapping at a pigeon for looking at him last Sunday. Nat is out with him right now, and when they come back, the disappointment will have hurt him even more. We can’t let him go on like this. Nat sends her love by the way.”

“I’m sure she didn’t say it like that,” Darcy murmured to herself.

“Actually she did.”

The shrieking of a half-dragon waking up from a nightmare cut off the rest of Sam’s reply. Exchanging a quick glance with Jane, Darcy snatched up the laptop and ran out of the room before Jay’s tail or wings could smash the machine to pieces. Jane stayed behind, trying to calm their patient:

“It’s okay, Jay, everything’s alright… we’ll go home soon and if you want, you can see my doctor, she’s very nice –“

“ _No doctors_!” the dragon roared.

“Uhm, sorry,” Darcy tried to smile. “That was Jay, Thor’s cousin. She’s a half-dragon and she doesn’t like it.”

Sam raised a brow.

“And here I thought having a sad Steve Rogers at home was tricky.”

“ _Aliens_ ,” Darcy shrugged. “Hey. I think I know someone who can help Steve find his old buddy.”

“You do?” Sam asked, his eyes as bright as fireworks.

Darcy held up her index finger. As much as she liked to help, she wasn’t charity.

“And in return, you could think about if it’s possible to welcome the first dragon to your support group.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's why updates are so late these days: chapters becoming longer by half, story threads interweaving, and how exactly did I think this would wrap up nicely in no more than 20-25 chapters...? Usually a chapter such as this one would fly out of the story immediately in a serious editing process, but I guess we can call it "author trying to assemble their thoughts".
> 
> Hope to see you soon for the next installment, in which there will be a bit of slapstick again.
> 
> PS: Thanks so much to the attentive reader who keeps pointing out my spelling and grammar mistakes, you are a treasure!


	24. Chapter 24

Jane was a friend of the simple things in life. Such as being very, very happy that she could change back into her threadbare jeans and plaid shirt.

“Boss, I’m really glad that you’re getting along so well with your alien sparkle stone, but right now I’d be happier if it was a sparkle stone in your engagement ring, because it’s giving you very strange ideas.” Darcy, still looking like a movie star at the Oscar night in her long gold-and-green robes, didn’t stir a finger while Jane tried to stuff her things into her backpack. Physically it shouldn’t have been possible to have more now than she’d brought, but then, neither should be alien sparkly stones. “Completely ridiculous ideas actually.”

“Darcy –“

“I’m not interning for Loki!”

Jane growled. They had been through this twice already.

“You’re not supposed to intern for Loki, I just thought you’d like some actual practical field work for once. It’d be perfect for your Bachelor thesis. You can’t graduate any easier, and honestly, it’s about time. You could have a PhD by now.”

Darcy was not amused.

“Of course, Miss Perfect with her three degrees can’t understand that there’s people who couldn’t care less about that sort of stuff. I’m twenty-seven, that’s too old to waste any more time on papers and word counts!”

Jane frowned.

“Didn’t you say you were twenty-eight last summer?”

“Twenty-seven, twenty-eight – old enough to be forgetful. Since when do you remember such things?”

She had always wondered what Darcy had done before they had met, but today was obviously not the time to ask. Training unicorns in tap-dancing, most likely.

Thor had finally agreed that Loki could do quite well without his older brother hovering around him like a constantly worried bumblebee. However relieved she was about going home, Jane worried that Darcy could not use the chance of being the first human to see Loki’s court in action and write heavy, overpriced books about it. Her academic soul winced at the thought.

Hoisting up the heavy backpack, Jane left the room after Darcy. As little as she would have believed this about a year ago, sometimes priorities shifted, and right now Jane’s priority was clearly to go home as quickly as possible. Maybe that came from having a real, solid home of her own. Or maybe it was the chance of not having to share her fiancé’s attention with a whole nebula. No, she wasn’t that selfish.

Okay, she was.

* * *

Thor sighed in relief when he finally saw the tiny spot that was Jane approach on the bridge. He had been waiting for her in the observatory, which in itself would not have been a problem, but so was his mother, relatively unsettling, as well as Loki, which was a complete annoyance.

“Sorry,” Jane said when she finally reached the observatory. “Everybody wanted to say bye and I had to see if Jay’s okay. She’s asleep.”

These news were hardly surprising. Sif had taken up training the dragon to withstand her Infinity Gem, and Jay had promptly used the stone’s power to spell herself back to humanoid shape, a very exhausting piece of magic.

Thor took Jane’s backpack and together they went into the observatory. The bag was heavier than she, how did these tiny humans lift these things? He would not have said so out loud, and certainly in a very different context, but Loki’s comparison to ants did not seem quite so absurd once in a while.

“Oh – uhm – hi,” Jane said when she almost walked into Thor’s mother.

“I just came to say farewell,” the queen said warmly, “and to thank you.”

Jane shook her head.

“I’m not doing anything. Jay isn’t much better, she’s just found a way to shift shape again. She has to accept that she’s a dragon.”

“No, she does not.”

Loki had snarled those words.

“Loki…” Frigga sighed.

Thor growled: “What is the matter?”

“Nothing you two will argue about, promise me that,” the queen said, embracing him before turning to Jane. “And promise that you will return soon.”

“Or you visit us…?” Jane asked shyly.

Queen Frigga smiled and nodded before turning gracefully and leaving the observatory. Thor had expected Loki to follow their mother, but he did not seem to have any such intentions at all. Loki merely lifted his brows.

Before anyone could talk, something he and his brother were decidedly bad at even in a quiet setting, the observatory roared to life and, in a flash of colourful lights, revealed the figures of Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers.

“So that’s how you do it,” Steve said to Thor, who replied by pulling Steve into a hearty hug. Sam did the same with Jane.

“This is awesome,” he grinned. “Hi!”

Heimdall laughed at the address, quite possibly reminded of his first personal encounter with Jane and her monosyllabic ways of introducing herself. Sam added:

“Oh my goodness, this is – I wish I could introduce you to my grandma. She knew Doctor King personally.”

“I know,” the gatekeeper replied. “A remarkable woman. If it is her wish, I would love to meet her.”

His gaze shifted to Loki, possibly waiting for approval, but the latter simply continued to sulk in his corner without paying attention to the scene. He was visibly keeping his distance from Steve. A lovely sight.

“Hey Loki, uh – good to see you.” Steve tried to smile. Thor had never thought his friend to be so good an actor.

“Honestly?” The expression on Loki’s face could have turned a dragon’s breath to ice.

“He wants to say that he didn’t expect to see you again, as king and everything,” Sam said. Loki’s face stayed unimpressed.

“No, you certainly did not. And to which circumstance do I owe the pleasure?”

Thor felt Jane’s questioning glance. “You didn’t tell him?”

“He did not ask.”

“I did not know.”

Jane rolled her eyes.

“Guys, your communication problem might be a beloved family member, but it’s honestly starting to get on my nerves, and also, we’re late. Loki, Steve is looking for a friend of his who has gone missing, that’s why he’s here. This is Sam Wilson, he’s a good friend, too, and trying to help. Sam, as you’ll know, this is Loki.”

The men nodded curtly at each other, and Thor had to bite back a grin over how Jane had spared herself the recounting of all the titles and ranks both of them had achieved. With Loki that list was relatively short, but from what Steve had told, Sam’s medals must take up a wall of his house. He made a mental note of learning the story behind each and every one, to recount them all to Loki, and to make sure that Loki would remember every single one of those stories.

“I have found your lost friend,” Heimdall interrupted them. “I can show you where he is.”

While Sam and Steve walked over to the large window with him, Thor felt Loki sneak up to him in his usual silent fashion. Using their language so the humans could not understand, Loki hissed:

“The next time you invite some of your Avengers friends, you would do well to ask for your king’s permission. I had no say in Sif bringing Banner, but this –“

“I am helping a friend,” Thor snarled back as quietly as he could. He did not want Steve or Sam to hear this, no matter whether they understood or no. “He would do the same for me.”

“Hardly,” Loki scoffed coldly.

“This was a matter between friends, there was no need –“

“There was _every_ need to consult me,” Loki hissed, eyes ablaze. “You suggested me for the throne, now stop behaving as if you were excluded from the duty of loyalty.”

He was about to snap back, but then felt Jane’s hand on his arm. How had she taught him? Take a deep breath, count to seven. Breathe out, count to eleven.

“Very well, brother. The next time, I will ask.” Quickly he added: “Except for emergencies of course.”

“You will not –“

“I’m gonna spray you both with water!” Jane shouted, having indeed drawn a water bottle from her backpack. Why she carried one for a way that only took a moment of time was a riddle to Thor, but then, being out and about with Jane often meant sidetracks to other worlds.

“Water?” Loki asked, switching back to Jane’s language. “Sister, you are turning soft.”

“Careful. I’m only being nice to you because you showed up in my kitchen like a lost puppy once.”

Thor did decidedly not like the glint in Loki’s eyes. Quickly he said:

“Yes, and we had better take our leave before Jane decides otherwise.”

“So hasty, brother? And here I thought you would like to finish the preparations for Jane’s surprise…”

“Shut up!”

“A surprise, huh?” Jane grinned. “Don’t worry, if he wants to spill any more, I’ll stick my fingers in my ears and sing lalala.”

“Will you?” Loki asked. “Because it’s –“

“Lalalalala!”

“Guys?” Sam asked from the other side of the observatory. “What’s going on, are the scientist’s batteries low?”

Steve said:

“Just another normal Tuesday afternoon with the Avengers.”

* * *

At least the house still looked its usual self: completely impossible.

“The little blue roof is new, right? It’s new,” Jane mumbled to herself. They were walking to the front door, but instead of enjoying the first five minutes of quietude with his fiancée, Thor was writing a text message.

“Steve?” Jane asked.

“Natasha.”

“Say hi from me, and that I’m gonna reply to her e-mail about how the guys always ignore her really soon.”

With a flabbergasted face, Thor looked up from his phone.

“That is what you e-mail each other about…? Oh. I’m sorry.”

“And I was joking.” Jane put an arm around his middle, which was just as high as she could comfortably reach. “I’m worried about Steve, too. _Don’t_ tell Natasha.”

Thor arched a brow, and it looked worryingly mischievous.

“Why should I not do so?”

Jane bit her lip, but then she realised that he was teasing her.

“Because I’m gonna kiss you now so you forget all about it,” she replied sweetly, extending the word “all” over the whole length of her tongue until the sound reached her lips. She saw Thor’s gaze follow it very closely.

He pulled her up into his arms so they were on eye level, Jane holding on with her arms and legs, leaning fully into their kiss.

“Forgot already?” she smirked when they finally took a moment to breathe.

“Hm… not quite?” 

Jane Foster may not have been known to be the most competitive person, but one had to have principles. 

This time it took quite a bit longer until she noticed her surroundings again, and the look on Thor’s face told her that he would need a little while. Out of the corner of her eye, Jane also perceived someone else: an elderly woman behind the garden fence of the neighbouring house, who was taking down some laundry from where it had dried on a clothesline. She smiled when she saw Jane.

“Hi, we’re the new neighbours!” Jane shouted to match the distance.

“And we are the old neighbours, come over for tea when you have some time!” the woman laughed.

Thor smiled:

“We are a little short on the latter right now, but –“

“I can see that,” she winked. “The busyness of the young. Friday, five o’clock sharp!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Jane found herself giggling like a fox in a comedy club when they finally made it to the hallway. She realised too late that Thor had grown a bit too quiet. Why could she never, ever be helpful in any way? Why was she so clumsy?

“Hey, uhm…” Jane mumbled, tucking her hair back behind her ears although it made her feel odd. “Do you mind telling me when you’re sad? You know, I’m bad at reading moods…”

Although it still looked sad, a smile sneaked on Thor’s face.

“Very well, I will. I am sad right now.” Readily he closed his arms around her as she rose to the tips of her toes to hug him. Jane tried to be careful, and fortunately Thor wasn’t. “And I do not think you are bad at reading moods,” he whispered into her ear with the hint of a smirk.

Jane pulled back a little so she could lean her head against Thor’s, the tips of their noses barely touching.

“So… would you like to go through that sadness, or would you prefer something distracting?”

It was an honest question, and she hoped Thor wouldn’t mistake it for sarcasm. He didn’t. After a moment of thinking, he said:

“I would like to be with you.”

“Oh good, ‘cause I like being with you.”

She heard him chuckle as he pulled her back into his big, warm embrace. It wasn’t entirely comfortable for Jane, not the strong bear-hugs she preferred, but this wasn’t about her comfort. She let him hold her as long as he needed to hold her.

Life being its usual pragmatic self, however, the audible growl of two stomachs interrupted their silence.

“Lunch time,” they both agreed.

The freezer held a wide range of leftovers that just needed to be popped into the microwave, so they didn’t have to eat out or go shopping for groceries. While Jane made tea, Thor picked something up from the kitchen table: one of Nick’s notes. Compared to his recent position, Nick had an adorable liking for paper-based communication. Judging from his handwriting, he also practised calligraphy. Not the worst hobby for someone with a very un-relaxing job.

“He writes that there is wine in the refrigerator in case we want some, and that he has seen Beatrice home,” Thor said. “Post scriptum: he may also become your stepfather.”

Jane shrugged. “That is something he has brought upon himself.”

It was too sunny a day to spend it all inside, but fortunately the room they had chosen for Jay opened up to a small terrace. Jane hoped that this would remind Jay a little of her aunt’s place, so she would not miss the other half of her new old family so much when she was here. With the big windows opened, nothing but the fragile shadows of blossom-shaped wire in the window frames cast some shadows, the rest of the room was as sunny as if there were no roof.

Only last week, the room hadn’t been half as big, and the terrace had lain a bit further to the southern side of the house. Now the place was nice and airy, and it would look even better when decorated. Darcy had made some designs and chosen a teal-coloured wallpaper and golden border that was supposed to cover the lower half of each wall, while the rest would be painted a nice sky blue. Between the two of them, they finished that part in what felt like minutes. Thor was just painting the tricky bits between the window frames when Jane remembered something they had stored in another room.

“Back in a moment.”

She returned with several more shades of paint Darcy had chosen for her room and then decided to leave unused – pastel pink and white, yellow and lavender, a darker blue.

“So,” Jane said, taking the big paintbrush from Thor’s hands. “How well can you paint the sky from your home?”

“Having looked at that sky for a thousand years,” he replied snootily, “I should be capable of doing so quite well.” He touched Jane’s nose with his index finger, and she felt a little of the blue paint clinging to it. That called for another lecture about how not to be a haughty prince from outer space under her roof.

“Oh yeah?” Jane smirked.

“Oh yeah.”

“Okay.” Before Thor could duck, Jane had jumped at him and rubbed the paint-stained tip of her nose all over his cheek and hair. “ _Now_ you look like a piece of art,” she grinned.

The growl that came from Thor’s smile could only be called feline. Jane quickly held the brush out of his reach, or rather, as far within his reach as she could manage.

“No paint stains! This is Jay’s room,” she warned.

Thor grinned: “For an astronomer, you do not seem to know what a sky looks like.”

They did finish the ceiling painting that day, although the paint stains on the floor required a lot of scrubbing where the old newspapers had been tossed up by wild paint chases. They read up the chapter about attaching wallpaper in one of Thor’s do-it-yourself books over dinner, and although Jane was tired to the bones, they did a decent job with the rest of the walls. She hardly noticed how they made it to their own bed that night, expect maybe for a gentle hand wiping the paint from her face. Sleep enwrapped her as softly as her beloved nest of blankets. She felt warm, weightless…

“Oh my God,” Jane exclaimed, sitting up straight and wide awake. “It’s almost Christmas.”

“Mmwhat?” the mound of blankets next to her mumbled.

“Christmas. It’s a holiday, and it’s in… wait…” Jane checked the date display on her phone. “Christmas Eve is in three days!”

Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Thor stuck his nose out from underneath the covers.

“So…?”

“Darcy’s gonna do awful things to my favourite t-shirts if she can’t celebrate it this year. Again.”

“I thought she wasn’t religious…”

“She’s not, but Christmas has sort of become a general thing here. Pretty much everyone celebrates it. My Dad never did, our family is Jewish anyway, and he wouldn’t even if he’d ever remembered any of our own holidays over his books, so… I don’t even know what you have to do for Christmas except giving everyone unwanted presents and put up a lot of awful decorations, and I think the whole stress is stupid and everyone says it’s not what it was so why –“

“Because Darcy would do awful things to your favourite shirts.”

“Yes.”

“She’ll get her Christmas then,” Thor said half-asleep, disappearing under the covers again and pulling Jane closer. Once more finding her face drowning in his t-shirt, she said:

“What? Why?”

“Because I like your shirts.”

“Oh really? Because every time the topic comes up, you wanna go buy me a complete new set of designer clothes for all occasions and –“

A soft snore interrupted her. Typical. She would so use this against him the next time they went dress shopping.

Early next morning, they quickly finished putting up the furniture in Jay’s room – the ceiling painting looked very beautiful, Jane had to admit to herself, especially as Thor had done most of it bent over backwards while balancing on one foot on the ladder’s top step – she had a photo – and then set out on the task of finding out about Christmas.

The way Jane knew Darcy, and Thor agreed to this, her t-shirts would be safest if they started with the presents, then made sure of the food, and finally the decorations. Fortunately Darcy’s present was easy: she had howled for the past years that she wanted a gaming console, including the type, the brand, the colour, the technical detail and every game that had ever crossed her mind in the description. While they were in the electronics store, Jane also picked up an iPod and some download gift cards for Jay, so she and Darcy didn’t have to share anymore.

Having moved away from the city was definitely a good thing. The stores were full with late-season shoppers, but not as badly as Jane had expected. Quickly they found the other presents they needed: a luxurious spa voucher for Jane’s mother in case she showed up, another one for Nick in case he showed up with Beatrice, two science kits for Clint’s daughters, and a set of bathrobe, slippers and sleeping mask for all of the other Avengers and their partners, plus Maria Hill, Sif and Gamora. Every item in the set was made of super long, super fluffy pastel-coloured plush and came with a bottle of bubble bath in a specifically chosen, relaxing scent.

“I can’t wait to see their faces when they discover that the bathrobes have bunny ears,” Jane grinned.

In the last moment, Thor decided to add another light green set for Loki, although the latter was sure not to attend.

“Any idea what we could give your mother?” Jane asked.

“Grandchildren.”

She tried to match Thor’s deadpan expression, but it was hard work.

“I don’t believe that even you could do that in two days,” she said.

“We can try.”

Jane decided to send an assortment of homemade Christmas biscuits in a pretty tin.

After having purchased sets of useful household store gift cards for the inhabitants of G. Street, Jane remembered that they needed another present for Sam and Steve, for their new flat. She quickly decided that a starter set for kitten owners and a stack of books on the subject on how to care for a cat would be apt.

While Thor volunteered to do the grocery shopping on his own so Jane didn’t have to endure the crowded supermarkets, she looked up the local driving schools. It was an idea she had had in the morning, when Thor had complained that he still couldn’t drive a car. She tried three different driving schools before deciding for the one that seemed nicest, and then booked the first available course for Thor. She had also ordered a complete set of the “Harry Potter” books, deluxe edition, for their new library, that would hopefully be delivered quickly enough, but that was a gift for them all, including the house.

A pretty card for the lessons contract later, Jane was back in the car, pretending to read – not for long though, as she found herself woken up by a gentle, if slightly scratchy, kiss on her cheek that announced Thor’s return from the supermarket. The delicious cacophony of smells from dozens of different foodstuffs in the back of the car meant he had been successful.

“This car was definitely not made for people with all of the Avengers for their friends,” Jane sighed when she turned the keys. “And who cook for them.”

They needed to take yet another round to make sure there would be enough food in the house to keep everyone happy, not to mention the decorations. Fortunately, despite this being such a small almost-suburb, there were a lot of hip new cafés and bistros serving fresh, delicious takeaway food that hadn’t been deep-fried for days. After lunch, during which Jane had almost nodded off with her plate for a pillow, Thor made a good show of pretending that he needed a nap. They curled up together on the bed upstairs because they could.

Jane woke up refreshed, but not because she couldn’t have slept any longer. Thor was murmuring in his sleep in what sounded like another nightmare about to start. Jane carefully wiggled a little closer, so he could feel her presence.

“It’s okay, just a nightmare.”

“… Jane…”

“I’m here. Everything’s fine.”

She wanted to lie down again, but Thor had already closed his arms around her, pulling her close. He was still asleep, face buried in her hair, hugging her tight. Jane suppressed a giggle when he turned to his other side, pulling her with him. Snuggling up to Thor as close as possible and returning the hug, she dozed off again. Thor’s chest against her face rose and fell calmly now, his arms around her heavy but relaxed. Jane hoped she wouldn’t fall asleep fully so as not to miss a single second of this precious moment.

They had started to put up the decorations when in the late afternoon, it was already dark outside, Darcy and Jay arrived, accompanied by Sif and Gamora who had very obviously tied the bond with each other. At least that explained why they both wore friendship bracelets very obviously handmade by Darcy. Very 90s, but Jane thought that the bracelets looked pretty on the two aliens.

“Surprise!” she grinned at her intern, throwing a glittering garland over Darcy’s shoulders. The latter perfectly gawked at her.

“I don’t believe it…” Darcy sighed. At the questioning glances from her companions, she said: “These decorations are for a holiday Jane has ignored for the past five years straight. Together with all the other holidays she has ignored and/or forgotten, and no, that you declared a once-a-year-birthday-party for all of us doesn’t count because you forgot that, too!”

“Sorry,” Jane mumbled with a face blushing so hot, it made for a nice contrast against her freezing ears. “Have you told Bruce and Betty that they’re invited?”

“Coming tomorrow,” Darcy shrugged. “Something important about a plant that has the most amazing leaf structure since the common begonia or something like that.”

“And Loki?”

“I don’t think the grease pot should be invited,” Darcy snarled, accompanied by Sif’s fervent nodding.

“And here I thought Christmas is a family holiday and the best time to make sure he doesn’t go all Lord Voldemort again,” Jane hissed back, Jay squeaking her support and Gamora shrugging at her lover.

They went inside, where Thor had been so wise as to prepare hot chocolate and tea for everyone. Jane leant only half an ear to Darcy’s explanation of Christmas, as most of it sounded very much like a Doctor Who special, and the whole idea was beginning to lose its sparkle already. They were halfway through cleaning up after dinner when Darcy gave her boss’s side a good-natured nudge.

“Only you could come up with something like a Christmas party for a bunch of people who don’t do that sort of stuff at all. Which includes you.”

“ _You_ wanted one. And Jay is Christian.”

“Yeah, but she’s used to celebrate it some days later.”

Oh. Jane hadn’t thought of that.

“Don’t worry,” Darcy continued, “your super alien boyfriend is busy googling the best Christmas recipes right now, and Sif and Gamora have brought alien booze. It’s gonna be fun.”

“Darcy – no.” Jane held up a very strict index finger in front of Darcy’s face, making her look cross-eyed. “You’re gonna regret touching any of that stuff in the morning and you know it.”

“Go easy, Lady MacNoFun,” Darcy pouted.

“And stop calling me Lady!”

Even Jane knew that her request would have the opposite effect.

As promised, Bruce and Betty arrived the other night, so caught up in their discussion of whether or not the classification of fungi as either plant or animal was unscientific that they didn’t even notice the wildly blinking reindeer-arrangement Darcy had built out of a lot of old twigs, colourful chains of lights, and for some odd reason: neon-coloured sangria straws. The reindeer were playing hopscotch, too.

Thor turned more than grateful for Betty’s input as to how to cook a goose – the only edible birds his people knew were so big they didn’t fit into anything smaller than a volcano, and tasted like whatever would come out of such a thing, too. “Dinosaurs!” Betty shrieked excitedly whilst scribbling down her favourite recipe for stuffing.

They had intended to have a nice Christmas Eve for themselves to see what it was like, and then to visit all their friends on Christmas Day with the help of handy wormholes and Gamora’s spaceship, now happily bobbing up and down on its holding cable above Darcy’s festive garden decorations.

As usual, when everything seemed so perfectly easy, it wouldn’t stay so for long.

Jane had just returned from a short walk through their snowy backyard before Thor set off for his morning jog when the doorbell rang. With Darcy asleep, Sif and Gamora sightseeing and Jay in her room (she had only just learnt about the custom of giving presents and in consequence had locked herself in despite everyone’s assurances that they didn’t expect any presents from her), it was Jane’s turn to open the door. Her mother, most likely.

How wrong she had been about human intention Jane learnt once again when she saw the rock band assembled on her doorstep: James Rhodes, Pepper Potts and Tony Stark, Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson, all with sleeping bags and camping equipment. Too flabbergasted to tell them that there were more than enough guests rooms for everyone (increasingly so) and that nobody had to sleep in the garden, Jane only gawked when Steve said:

“Darcy told us that you guys need some holiday support, so… carols?”

Jane stared, then, before dashing back inside the house to fetch her phone, she shouted:

“Wait a minute, she’s gonna do awful things to my favourite t-shirt if I don’t film this!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to the person who made a gifset of Steve Rogers getting help from outer space to find Bucky again. I hope you don't mind that I adapted this idea here, but if you do, let me know. It just makes so much sense that I wonder why it's not in the movies.
> 
> Also, I have no idea how this chapter could become so long, but now you know why sometimes updates take a bit longer.


	25. Chapter 25

Jane’s eyes glowed red when she yelled:

“The next person trying to steal a cookie is going to do the dishes for the rest of the year! No dishwasher!”

She had continued her gem-training with Sif before starting a baking marathon that included Christmas pies, Christmas biscuits, Christmas cakes, Christmas puddings and Christmas cupcakes which she had just invented, and because there had to be cupcakes. Darcy’s words, not hers.

Jane had thrown everyone out of the kitchen fifteen minutes before already, but had succumbed to making an exception for Jay. The dragon had managed to nick a whole armful of cinnamon biscuits and pass them on to everyone else in the house.

She didn’t quite know about herself, but at least the others seemed to have fun.

Nick had made true on his promise and returned, shortly followed by Beatrice, which meant a very, very full house. Steve had announced that everyone’s Christmas present for their hosts was helping them to paint and furnish the rest of the rooms. Jane hadn’t had the heart to tell everyone that on one hand they were finished with all the guest rooms, and on the other, this house by definition would simply never be finished. Darcy had simply laughed. Very, very long.

Jane would never have believed anyone who’d have told her that one day, she’d be Lady of such a big, busy, crowded house. The day had started with Pepper, Darcy and Maria singing “Lady Marmalade” in trio – from three different showers in three different corners of the building, with Jay adding the fourth part from the hallway. The guys had made a show of their workout in the snow, followed by a football game which Natasha won – as the single-woman third team. Nobody could tell how she had done that, but nobody doubted that she was the clear winner either.

Thor and Tony had everyone’s attention when they started a game of chess together, mostly because their audience wanted to see very much how Tony lost to an alien who had just read up the rules of the game. Jane, fully positive that her sweetheart could handle the board on his own, used the chance to sneak up to Steve in the back of the room. He had been markedly chipper the whole time, but as he stood there, apparently thinking nobody noticed, Jane had noticed.

“… so?” she murmured from the corner of her mouth, hoping that she would stay inaudible in the crowded library – even her mother had joined to watch the game – and knowing fully well that every alien in the room could most likely hear them.

“We found Bucky – James,” Steve answered just as quietly. “It wasn’t easy, but I think he remembers me.”

Quite aware of her awkwardness, Jane tried to pat Steve’s arm, but stopped quite soon again.

“I’m sure he does. Old memories are harder to forget, uhm, I read that somewhere… where is he now?”

“Doc Cho is taking care of him.” Jane nodded her understanding. Nat had told her of the new doctor Tony had hired to take care of the team. “He was asleep most of the time, so… Sam said it would be good if we spent the holidays here. I’m not sure…”

“I think it’s good. Natasha can do with some fresh air,” Jane interrupted him, trying to pretend she hadn’t understood. Fortunately Steve got the hint.

“Yeah. We all can. Thanks for this, I haven’t had a Christmas holiday… I think nobody here has had a real one for years.”

“It’s my first Christmas, and I don’t think I’ll try again, thanks a lot,” Jane shrugged. “Though I should tell you I forgot all about Chanukah this year. Again.” Just like her Dad. She was taking after him, wasn’t she?

“I’ll send you a reminder next time,” Steve said with a little smile on the corner of his mouth. “And for Passover and every other holiday, if you like.” He wiggled his phone.

“Cool,” Jane smiled back.

A wild round of applause from the centre of the room, where Tony was staring in bewilderment at a three-minute-checkmate, interrupted their conversation. Jane gently bumped against Steve’s side before walking over to her fiancé to crown his triumph with a cheesy but cheeky kiss.

* * *

The bartender of the obligatory pub-around-the-corner had wanted to close early on Christmas Eve, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so when the collective puppy-faces of Natasha, Pepper, Maria and Darcy begged him to give them another two hours. That Pepper generously gifted him with her hand lotion did help though. The two spent the next thirty minutes discussing their favourite cosmetic lines, resulting in a round of free ale for everyone who liked it, and Estefan kept meandering back and forth between their tables and the bar for the rest of the night. He probably made the profit of the year, too, as more and more guests arrived, some of them wanting to see the Avengers in person, others simply glad to have found a place where it wasn’t quite such a silent night.

Once in a while, as the mood went up in the small pub, someone would give a shout out to their favourite superhero. Especially Thor seemed popular, being the new neighbour and quite easy to spot, with his height and unusual hairstyle. So whenever another “thanks for saving the world, mate” was directed at him, he would point at Jane replying “here’s the woman who did it” – including Darcy, after the latter had complained – and as it became more and more crowded, simply lifted both of them up.

“It’s okay, really,” Jane complained after the approximately fifth time.

“But you’re so short,” Thor replied, “they can’t see you.”

“I’m getting seasick.”

“Really?” Darcy said, sniffing Jane’s glass of light white wine. Estefan’s recommendation. “I thought you hadn’t touched any of the alien stuff.”

She hadn’t, but then, Jane was sure she’d have felt tipsy from a handful of wine gums.

As Natasha was the only other woman who ever seemed to get cheers, and not quite as many as the guys, Steve, James, Sam and Tony soon started to point out the other women in their team, too. Sif’s souvenir wine from outer space, handed around under the table whenever Estefan wasn’t looking, proved that it worked when Steve mockingly tried to lift up Tony. Gamora laughed so hard that Sif almost fell off her lap, which James who sat next to them didn’t seem to mind. Somehow Bruce and Betty vanished quite early, and the person most disappointed about this was Estefan. Sam gave him his number before they left, which cheered up the poor guy considerably.

When they returned to the house, most of the others expressed the wish to go to bed immediately. It may have had to do with Nick’s stern gaze greeting them in the entrance hall. Sif and Gamora were already up in their spaceship, Jay had fallen asleep halfway through the front garden and was carried by Steve, and even Darcy said she could do with a nap.

After several days of continuously practising with her Infinity Gem, the old fatigue had decided to go on a holiday, too, and so Jane decided that a cup of tea before bed wasn’t a bad idea. Although Thor looked a bit sleepy, he followed her to the kitchen quite happily. Jane shared the feeling as soon as she saw who was sitting in the kitchen, having the cup of tea Jane had wanted.

“So, are Bruce and Betty officially together again or – Mother!”

Beatrice elegantly set the cup down on the saucer. Fine bone china, her belated move-in present for her daughter. She was the first person to use it, which Jane saw become a trend.

“Did you have a nice evening?” Beatrice asked.

“Yeah, yeah, it was good… so what did you two do?” she asked in Nick’s direction, who had joined the three of them in the kitchen.

“Reading,” Beatrice said.

“Opera,” Nick said synchronously.

Jane turned to the kitchen cupboard to hide her smile. Her mother should learn to trust Nick Fury in these things.

“Want some help?” Thor asked while he was already busy handing her pancake ingredients. They may have divided up cooking and baking, but that didn’t mean they weren’t an awesome team when it came to combining their respective skills for something as serious as pancakes.

“Thanks,” she smiled, sifting the flour – a whole lot of flower – in a very big bowl. Thor gave her a loving kiss on the cheek. Not a little kiss, for his kisses were never really little, which was great and wonderful and just the way it should be.

“Sorry for hogging the kitchen,” Jane said over her shoulder to where Nick had sat down with Beatrice, “gotta prepare breakfast for sixteen people.” Some of them aliens and/or superheroes, all of them with a very quick metabolism. “This might take a while.”

“Don’t hog the counter then,” Nick said, standing up to take another big bowl out of the cupboard.

“What’s that gonna be?” Jane asked while Nick weighed oats and reached for the cinnamon tin.

“Fitness vegan winter crumpets.” Noticing the looks that answer had earned him, Nick shrugged: “Retirement comes with a surprising amount of spare time.”

With a little sigh, Beatrice stood up from the kitchen table, asking:

“Not a breakfast food, but… what do I do?”

While Nick showed her, Jane exchanged a covet smile with Thor. Signs and wonders.

It took much less time to prepare the little they could do with the four of them, and they did so in comfortable silence. Jane would later hug Nick extra long for this, and just for a change not be quite so snappy to her mother for a very long five minutes. However, this wouldn’t have been her house if the evening had ended in relaxed tranquillity.

They were just about to clean up the kitchen counter when beyond the kitchen window, the outlines of a dragon thumped onto the ground, breathing fire and everything. The creature had vanished in the complete darkness of the woods before they could so much as open the window. A moment later, the kitchen door flew open and Darcy ran into the kitchen.

“Have you seen Jay?” she panted, visibly out of breath. “She changed back to dragon and panicked.”

“We’ll find her,” Thor said, already having climbed over the window sill and helping Jane down to the ground. “Find the heating blankets.”

Jane sighed. “So the prince and the damsel set out to save a dragon in distress. Can only be us.”

* * *

Christmas morning came slowly for all of them. Finding Jay the night before hadn’t taken long, fortunately, so she hadn’t needed much warming up. A cup of tea had worked miracles, as usual. Apparently working on the last presents had tired her out so much that she hadn’t been able to keep up the glimmer spell which concealed her dragon shape. On hearing so, Thor had made her an extra cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows, and together with some soothing words had been able to convince her that it wouldn’t ruin her new room at all if the spikes on her wings scratched the furniture.

“Once we have cats, they will scratch everything much more badly,” he had murmured so that only Jay could hear them as he had helped her up the stairs.

“Cats?”

“Yes,” he had smiled enigmatically. Of all this, Jane did not know.

That morning, Jane really, really couldn’t be bothered to wake up. It was so cosy and warm in bed, so quiet, spacious… someone was tickling her ear.

With a complaining meow Jane shook off Thor’s hand. He had by now learnt her before-first-cup-of-tea vocabulary and could translate the sound as a “don’t” accordingly.

“Sorry, darling,” he smiled at her when she blinked through her sleepiness. Instead of continuing the gentle caress, he gave her a full-body squeeze, hugging her with his arms, legs, face dug in her hair, until she couldn’t stop laughing and positively crawled out of the folds of his t-shirt to catch her breath. Letting herself fall back into those impossibly-good-at-hugging arms, Jane purred her approval.

“Would you like apple-cinnamon or spicy wholegrain pancakes for breakfast?” he asked.

She growled, making him chuckle. The word ‘or’ was never appropriate in the context of breakfast.

He may have had her permission to spoil her – sometimes – but that didn’t mean Jane could not thank him, in her own way, if anything. She dug herself out of her blanket cave so they were on eye-level (rare enough) and placed a tender little kiss on the tip of Thor’s nose.

“I love you,” she said, voice still croaky with sleep, returning his smile. If she had to speak at all, then better start a day of too much talking with the best words in the world. Well, together with “this data confirms my theory” and “thanks for the chocolate”, anyway.

As usual, just when it was about to become very romantic… Darcy happened.

“Meeerry Chriiiiistmaaas,” she trumpeted as she pushed open the door. “Get up, get up, there’s presents! And breakfast, if that gets you up faster.”

Darcy was out of the room again before Jane could so much as throw a very cross gaze at her, not to mention a pillow. She left the door open, too, allowing some cool air from the corridor to waft in. Jane growled, diving under the blankets where it was cosily dark and warm.

“Are you alright in there?” Thor grinned as he lifted the blanket to check on her.

“Don’t you ever go ‘Merry Christmas’ at me,” she snarled back.

“Happily, if the promise is mutual.”

“You bet.”

He dove under the covers to draw her back into his warm, assuring embrace. Instinctively snuggling up against him, Jane asked softly:

“Sweetie? What’s that surprise you’ve got for me?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” he mumbled as he gently rubbed his face all over hers until she couldn’t hold back laughing any longer.

An appeasingly hot and long shower later, Jane traipsed after Thor down to the kitchen. The mere noise of all the voices inside made her sigh. She wasn’t up to this, not yet, not now. After a day with so many people around, even if they were friends and awesome and the best, Jane’s batteries had simply run low.

“Do you mind if I take a walk after breakfast?” she asked quietly. “Or… sit in the little turret with a book or something?”

“Not at all,” Thor said as if she had only asked him to add eggs to the grocery shopping list. “I will reserve you some lunch to warm up later, if you like. There is Jay’s chicken soup, too.”

The first time they had asked the half-dragon what she liked best, Jay had answered “leftovers”. When they asked her again, she had chosen chicken soup, and so that had become the dish they tried to treat her with when she felt particularly bad. Thor’s recipe certainly justified the excitement though.

“Is this okay? Cooking lunch all on your own?”

Thor grinned:

“Oh, I’ll not be alone. I will teach Steve some useful skills for his new household.”

Lucky Sam and Nat.

As soon as they entered the kitchen, a whole swarm of “Merry Christmas”-es flew at them, so dense that Jane hardly managed to duck. Absolutely everyone was up already, including Betty and Bruce, Nick, Gamora and Sif, and of course Beatrice, as always in perfect attire and coif.

“We cooked breakfast!” Pepper smiled.

“ _I_ did,” Tony said, only to be snarled at by James:

“No, _you_ tried to automate the stove, which I kept you from – you’re welcome, Jane.”

“Want a crumpet? They’re good.”

“They’re actually not for breakfast…” Beatrice tried to remark, but nobody listened.

“We’ve been waiting for you, the presents and stuff –“ Sam said.

“Can we now, boss? Can we?” Darcy squeaked. Only now did Jane notice that Jay wasn’t with them. Before she could ask, Steve mumbled through a mouthful of cereal:

“Well, not all of us wanted to wait that long.”

Natasha lifted her coffee pot at them, grinning a broad “Thanks”. She wore her fluffy pink bathrobe with the matching bunny slippers already. It was one thing to make the Avengers wait for Christmas presents, and another to ask them to wait for breakfast. Strangely, Jane understood.

She squeezed onto the kitchen bench between Sif and Gamora on one side (who were very economic about seat space, sitting more or less draped around each other) and Maria on the other. Thor wanted to walk over to the counter where the men eagerly stood in each other’s way while cooking up more foodstuffs, but James barred his way, Sam and Steve gently pushed him aside, and Nick made sure he sat down. Jane was quite sure that they had to thank Sam and Bruce for not going hungry that morning, but she was hungry enough to wolf down whatever was put in front of her. Nightly dragon-saving cost quite some substance.

Finally it was time for the presents. If there had been bets – actually Jane was sure that Beatrice had found someone for bets – Darcy would have been the number one choice. She was first in the salon, where the presents had been laid out around the big fireplace. There was no tree for Jane’s sake, as decorations were one thing and, plastic being out of question, pointlessly cut-down trees spreading dry fir needles all through the house were another. There was, however, a big cheer and lots of tearing of wrapping paper, “thank you”-squeaks and hugs. Everyone had brought presents for everyone else, too, so amongst a lot of fluffy bunny slippers, there was a set of frilly kitchen aprons from Natasha for every guy in the house, a different perfume for Natasha from every guy in the house (she’d later admit to Jane with a smirk that she had tested them all for remembering what she’d told them was her favourite), a stack of yellow notepads and pencils from Tony for Maria which she only did not throw at him because there were tickets for a very exclusive boxing match hidden in the pages of the top notepad, little magical reading lights from Jay, and finally, amongst so many other things, a little red velvet box from Pepper for Tony.

“Is that what I think it is?” he said when he opened the box.

“I better hope it is,” Pepper replied. “So. Will you marry me?”

Instead of answering, Tony kissed her, sliding the fine ring with a tiny emerald over Pepper’s slender finger. James, intently gazing at the ceiling, sighed:

“Oh thanks God.” Nobody could disagree with him. Sam whispered in Jane’s direction:

“We had an online vote on the ring.”

Tony said to Pepper:

“Unless you want me to wear it.”

“Darling, if that had been the case, you’d be wearing it already,” Pepper replied with an equally deadpan face.

Before Jane could get in the line of congratulators for yet another engagement made in this house, she was whisked away by Maria and Betty, squeeze-hugging her from two sides at once. It took a Steve Rogers to make sure she could breathe again.

“Careful, Ladies,” he said, “Not all superheroes are in for super-hugs.”

“You just want to swap places with her,” Maria smirked. However, Jane had already guessed what Steve was hinting at. Maybe she should explain, just this once. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try, just this once.

“It’s okay, Steve. It’s just this sort of super-sensitivity, it’s why I don’t like hugs in general. I feel these sensations so… _detailed_ that they get uncomfortable to me. But a very strong bear-hug feels like scratching an itchy midge bite for my nervous system, 'cause it drowns out all that discomforting detail. So, that’s good.”

“Well, that makes sense,” Betty said. Maria shook her head:

“I don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to,” Jane said. Using the uncomfortable silence, she asked Steve:

“Hold on though – so I’m a superhero now?”

“Avengers’ shortlist, ever since Nick told us how you met that guy,” Steve shrugged, nodding at Thor. “We still want to put together our football team.”

“Count me in.”

“Fully.”

Jane used the general hubbub around Tony and Pepper to snatch one of the presents, a very small one, and sneak out of the room.

The hallway seemed cool, dark and silent compared to the salon, and for a moment Jane just leant against the wall, breathing in and out in her trusted pattern. She would have to go back later, open presents and say thank you, and the thought itself felt overpowering. Still, before her break, there was one more thing to do.

A low growl replied to Jane’s soft question if she could come inside. She was glad to find that Jay hadn’t left bed again, and instead had stayed under the heating blankets. The half-dragon hadn’t been out in the snow long enough to freeze, but better safe than sorry. Being so low on energy, Jay could use every bit of warmth she could get.

“How was breakfast?” Jane asked when she sat down on the floor next to the bed. They had chosen a very low one, put it in the corner of the room and installed a mosquito net above, so Jay had a little nest there.

“Good.”

“Thanks for the reading light, it’s so cute and really useful. Next time you don’t outdo yourself just for a present though, okay?”

Jay mumbled something that could have meant anything. Jane decided she didn’t want to know right now, and instead held up the small present she had picked from the stack downstairs.

“I didn’t think you’d want to come down, but maybe you’d like a present…?”

“Thanks.” It sounded a little sad, the way Jay said it, and to watch her fumble with the gift wrapping without any strength in her fingers, it was just that. Jane hadn’t expected the resulting tears though. “That – that’s for me?” Jay whispered when she delicately held the iPod between her fingers. “But that’s so expensive…”

“You deserve it.”

“No…”

“Yes.” And that was that. Everyone deserved to feel good, there was no condition for being good to oneself.

No longer willing to sit up, Jane leaned back onto the bed, closing her eyes at the relief of not having to hold herself up any longer.

“Is it so busy downstairs?” Jay asked.

“Yeah. And everyone’s hugging each other. Awful.” The half-dragon chuckled quietly, a sound that startled Jane. “It’s nicer here.”

“Then stay here.”

“Okay.”

* * *

As if they hadn’t just arrived, everyone was packing by evening. James wanted to spend the rest of the holidays with his kids, who were staying at his ex-wife’s, and Sam and Nat couldn’t keep Steve distracted from his worries any longer. Pepper needed to be a boss and stock up on hand lotion, Maria needed to be a boss so much more, and so on and so forth. Even Beatrice found an excuse. As much as Jane tried, she couldn’t help but feel relieved.

There was a great commotion in the hallway when they all said bye to each other, further thanks were spoken for presents and the party itself, and promises made to meet again soon. Jane saw Sam talk to Jay in a quiet corner, about his support group, no doubt. They had  
discussed this in the morning. Although Jane wasn’t sure if Sam’s self-help group was what Jay needed, it was better than nothing, and she trusted Sam’s experience as a mentor.

About half of them set out for the small local airfield, where Stark Industries’ private jet was waiting for them, Lady Beatrice had hailed a cab to take her to the train station, and Nick took his leave, too.

“See you soon, okay?” Jane said, feeling embarrassingly teary. As of this morning, she had wished to be alone so much, and now she didn’t want to let anyone go, not even Beatrice.

“That is a promise,” Nick smirked. Oh dear.

Jane gazed up and down the dark street when she held open the garden gate for him, but there was nobody to be seen. She had been wondering for a while where all the paparazzi were. Surely their whereabouts weren’t that hard to find – unless the house didn’t want to be found, of course.

Inside, Darcy had managed to detach herself from her new gaming console, Jay was wrapped up in the warmest winter clothes they could have found and in more layers than even Jane wore, Betty and Bruce were sharing a Christmas biscuit, and Sif listened to Gamora’s musings about the meaning of bunny slippers for the holiday. Two minutes later, they had left the house, Earth, and the golden observatory, leaving the gatekeeper with a big tin of biscuits and a thermos flask filled with cinnamon-flavoured hot chocolate.

Thor hadn’t told Jane what they were about to do up here, but he had said that they would be back home by dinnertime. The others were to stay: Betty and Bruce because they both seemed to like living at the other end of a wormhole, Jay for her inability to withstand the winter cold, Darcy to keep her company, and Sif with her Gamora so Jay could keep practising with the Time Gem. Jane tried very hard not to feel so bad about not staying with them, but it was difficult. She wished she could have been as selfless as the others. On the other hand, this was Sif’s home, and Darcy loved having herself spoilt in the palace while Thor clearly wanted to spend more time in their new house, so maybe it wasn’t all her fault. Yeah, that was better.

At the palace, a servant informed them that the king and his mother were caught up in an important diplomatic appointment and would not have time for visitors for the rest of the day. Thor did his best to hide his disappointment, but Jane saw a glimpse of it anyway.

When the others had excused themselves, she took his hand. Not a comfortable gesture for her, but Thor liked it. His smile looked real when he led her to a part of the palace she had never seen so far (one of hundreds, most likely), and then out through beautiful gardens and into a smaller building from which the whinnying of horses could be heard.

“All of these beasts originated on Earth,” Thor explained when they walked past the stables.

Her curiosity tickled, Jane asked:

“Just the horses, or any other animals, too?”

“Bees, crossed with local insects. You may find these creatures familiar though…”

They had stopped in front of a smaller house. A man opened the front door, visibly expecting his visitors. He led them through a spacious, but much less flashy-looking corridor than usual for the palace, and finally into a large room that looked suspiciously like… a cat lair.

About ten of the fussiest, furriest, and most fluffy cats Jane had ever seen populated the scenery. They were as big as the Maine Coon the janitor from her last apartment building had kept, but slightly more compact in proportion, and astonishingly clumsy. While Thor led Jane to some floor cushions, one of the cats managed to stand up on its hind legs only to topple over and land on its back, another fell over in solidarity, and a third tried to turn its face upside-down so as to look at the other two from their perspective, only to tumble into the heap of fur.

“Is this the surprise?” Jane asked, her eyes big. “We’re getting a cat?”

“Two, I thought.” Thor scratched the head of a smaller animal that had started to hop around his feet. “And they’re not cats.”

“What?” Jane asked, brow raised in scepticism. Thor grinned, the cat having found a way to drape itself over his knees:

“They’re kittens.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously there couldn't have been a time more wrong to upload a chapter about Christmas than during a heatwave. Is it chapter 25 already? My, my, time flies.


	26. Chapter 26

Taking care of two kittens whilst setting up an astronomy lab and making sure a bunch of superheroes and aliens didn’t go nuts should have been easier, Jane had decided. She had been all hyped up of finally taking her new laboratory into possession, telling everyone who wanted or didn’t want to know (most of the inhabitants of G. Street did, fortunately, when Jane and Thor paid them a Christmas visit) about her plans. Ms Powel had even given Jane a small lucky cat charm. She was awfully fond of those, Ms Powel, much more than real cats, but sadly, so were the real cats – kittens. They had kicked around the little figurine on the floor about a dozen times within the hour it was first set up, because, _obviously_ , real cat toys weren’t half as interesting. In this, as well as in many other aspects, the kittens were not very different from Earth’s cats.

Cats always chose their owners, not the other way ‘round, and so on Christmas Day, Jane and Thor had ended up going home with the kitten who had claimed the space on Thor’s knees, and a heartbreakingly clumsy little fellow who had shyly pawed Jane’s shoelaces – much less confident than all the other cats, but clearly feeling attached to her already (and if just because shoelaces were great; after all, a cat never knew when to find such great shoelaces again). However cuddly in space though, once in their new environment on Earth, the kittens had shown another very speedy aspect of their characters, gaining them the names Comet and Meteor. Their impact on the shoe rack in the hallway confirmed this choice.

As of Boxing Day, Jane had had more than enough of all the Christmas hubbub, and she made that clear to whoever was around, whether they were interested or no, too. She had no idea why it was such a popular thing, with all the noise and the stress.

“Agreed,” Tony said from the screen of her tablet from where he had kept her company while she arranged desks and chairs around a telescope, several high-performances computers, and a model of her first prototype of a wormhole generator. It had never done much more than heating microwave meals quite quickly, so Darcy had insisted that Jane kept it around for days when Darcy couldn’t remind her of lunchtime. “Skip the whole glitter-and-presents stuff and have a party,” Tony said.

While Jane was sure that that wasn’t the original meaning of Christmas either, she didn’t argue. A party was even easier to skip.

She was slowly getting used to Thor’s many friends, and that they kept calling all the time. Clint singing a rather off-key version of “Jingle Bells” with his family, Ronald the donkey ee-aw-ing in the background, had been the highlight of this week. Tony was certainly one of the last Jane would have expected, but he had nagged her about helping to set up the lab the whole last days. It had become a recurring joke between them.

“You haven’t put up the print we gave you,” Tony pouted.

“Yeah, sorry, but I’m afraid pop art Iron Man clashes a bit with Darcy’s amazing renaissance ceiling painting – and she was first,” Jane said with a kittenish smile. It was an expression Meteor had taught her, whenever she tried to lecture the cats about something they weren’t allowed to do. Playing catch inside a wormhole generator prototype for example.

“How comes she manages to paint a complete sixteenth-century model of the night sky to a ceiling much higher than she is, in no time at all, and still wants to stay your intern?”

“I have no idea,” Jane sighed.

“Well, you – oh shit,” Tony commented the clashing noise from somewhere behind him. He had called from his workshop. “Dum-E, I told you – stop that!” He turned back to Jane. “Sorry, gotta make sure this robot doesn’t flood everything.” A moment later the connection was ended.

Jane switched off the tablet, somehow relieved that she could finally focus on sorting her tools into the workbench. Not for long though.

Just when she had managed to come up with the perfect ergonomic arrangement – every tool sorted by occurrences of usage, size, colour and whether or not Jane liked its design – when the door flew open, followed by a completely dishevelled Thor and the questioning faces of two kittens woken from their mid-afternoon nap.

Thinking the worst, Jane asked: “What’s going on?”

“You have to see this,” he said, his eyes ablaze with excitement. Jane exhaled very pointedly. If her life needed any more excitement, she’d tell him so. Before she could say anything though, Thor had practically carried her through the door. The kittens, having returned to their basket in the hallway, looked at them with expressions that clearly spoke of how little they understood the follies of humanoids.

They were halfway up the stairs when all of a sudden –

“Wait a moment.”

Thor ran down again, fetched Jane’s thick winter coat and boots, sprinted back up to her, made sure she was warmly wrapped and then they ran all the way to the end of the upstairs corridor. Through the new sun room they went, and into another corridor Jane hadn’t seen so far. Around a corner, through a narrow opening, at the end of which was another small door and –

Okay. She’d not tell him so.

“Wormhole house. It’s true now.”

They stood in a snowy landscape, but clearly not the one from their backyard. Actually, not even one on Earth. The snow under Jane’s feet was of a light lavender colour, and the air had a thick, vaguely bitter quality that spoke of oxygen levels slightly higher than Earth’s. There wasn’t much to see except for snowy hills, some pastel pink rocks in the distance, and a sky of pure black velvet, full of constellations Jane had never seen. Definitely an alien planet.

She could see Thor’s foot prints in the snow where he had landed first, turned and gone back to fetch her. That he had waited for her with exploring this new world was definitely cute and so much like him. Unable to suppress the grin spreading over her face, she took his arm and tugged him along. He didn’t need much of an invitation.

Although only bathed in the light of two pale moons, the snow glittered magically when they climbed up a small hill for a better look-around. Jane did a series of little jumps, estimating that gravity was a tad lower than on Earth, or maybe that was just her excitement.

“Over there!” she shouted, but Thor had already seen it.

By the foot of the hill stood a ring of stones, exactly twelve, just like the one in their backyard. Only here the carvings still looked fresh and clear, swirls and spirals all around. Jane had never been much of an archaeologist, but this puzzle tickled her sleuthing senses.

Behind the next hill, they found the shoreline of a vast lake, deeply blue and glowing from its depths. In the distance, a herd of animals galloped over the pebbles. Tiny while far away, they turned out gigantic at closer range, some of them more than thrice as big as an elephant bull. Six-legged and with horns long enough to make said elephant think very well about whether he’d stand in their way or not, they were covered by mother-of-pearl-coloured fur, as far as Jane could tell from her position.

It was too cold to explore any further though, and so they returned to the little door in the middle of nothing quite soon.

Only when they sat in their warm kitchen again, huddled together on the cosy kitchen bench with a blanket and two cups of hot chocolate, did Jane realise how cold she had been. She didn’t want Thor, who had been out without any jacket, to feel any colder because she was such an icicle, so she kept away from him. As usual though, he was quicker, pulling her onto his knees and wrapping the blanket around both of them until Jane felt so warm, there was steam coming out of her ears. The snuggling did help a lot, too.

“I think I’m getting it now,” Jane mumbled through a mouthful of sandwich when they lay comfortably curled up in front of the fireplace in their bedroom. The steps leading down to it had been padded with some upholstery, turning them into a floor-level sofa big enough for both of them plus snacks and kittens. Comet and Meteor had just had their lunch (space cats needing three meals per day) so they wouldn’t try to snatch any food scraps, and now lay snuggled up together dozing in a corner of the sofa. Jane was getting used to the constant snacking, as Thor was making sure to keep her servings balanced between her likings and the increased need for energy her Infinity Gem induced. As long as she got snuggles as a side dish, she could just-so allow the distraction from her lab.

“Darcy has looked up some of these weird esoteric energy lines, and the house stands exactly on a knot of some of the strongest in this area,” she said. “But I think it’s a bit different. I think this place is a sort of folding point, and what we see with the growing rooms and everything is space expanding at will. I think there’s been humans living here for a long time, and they built the house in a sort of way that left it with a sort of AI, so that’s why it adjusts to us. And I think they built this wormhole, too, just where these folds in space happen… what? Sweetie?”

Thor’s face had grown solemn again, bearing this certain expression that looked as if he was retreating deeply back into himself.

“Nothing. Please continue,” he said.

“I’m done, and I think we had an agreement. Are you sad?”

He just nodded, hardly daring to look her in the eyes. Silly.

There hadn’t been a lot of times when he had let her hold him, but this time Jane wouldn’t let him be. She reached out for him, drew him close, made sure he was comfortable when he snuggled up to her shoulder. Stroked his hair, rubbed his back, gently kissed his forehead. If she got the chance so rarely, he should at least know what he missed.

“Come on, tell me,” she whispered. “Whatever you like.”

So he told her. Slowly at first, and then more and more steadily. All kinds of things, big stories and small, a thousand years’ worth of anecdotes about his father, his family, his friends. Jane wouldn’t have said that she was interested, but she made herself listen. It was important to Thor, and she knew from her own experience how important telling someone would have been to her.

The cats seemed to like the deep, steady sound of Thor’s voice, as they crept closer despite their drowsiness. So far only Meteor had allowed anyone to scratch zans ears, and only for one of the cat treats from the tin in the kitchen. The closest Comet had come to anyone humanoid was carefully sniffing Jane’s outstretched hands, after a good thirty minutes of patient coaxing. Meteor was the more talkative one, too, but Comet was better at signalling, looking at someone and going “meow” whilst indicating very clearly that it was feeding time, or the kitchen window to the backyard had to be opened. The cats didn’t use litter boxes, they insisted on their freedom, and they had been perfectly able to find their way back from the beginning.

Meteor, not quite as clumsy as the other kittens, gingerly stepped over Thor’s arm and sat down by his chest, where the resonance of his voice could be felt best, and where it was warm, too. Clever cat, Jane had to admit. Comet wasn’t quite so lucky with a place by her side, somehow misjudging the space available and ending up sitting nose-down and paws-up. Jane tried to make some space, but she couldn’t escape a bushy cat-tail tickling her nose.

“Comet, that’s – huh – that’s – huh-choo!”

To her greatest surprise, suddenly she heard Thor laugh, making the kittens run out of the room to somewhere else where they could cause some mischief.

“Darling?” she asked. He wasn’t just chuckling, he was laughing his gorgeous butt off.

“How can anyone as small as you sneeze like that?” he kept choking between fits of laughter, tears in his eyes. Jane made sure he could see the thunderstorm drawing up on her face.

“You…” she growled, glaring at Thor – and jumping at him, using the opportune moment to tickle him wherever she could reach. That only caused him to laugh more, until both of them fell onto the couch in a giggling heap. As their kisses intensified, Jane instinctively reached for a blanket before she remembered that Darcy wasn’t around to drop in, as she did, unannounced. But she remembered something else, too.

“Darling…?”

“Mm?” Thor mumbled, busy kissing her jaw line.

“Is it Friday, by any chance?”

Thor looked up.

“Oh no.”

* * *

The Guptas were a very nice couple. They had lived in the village when it still was one, and Mrs Gupta, whose family had owned the piece of land for five generations, could tell dozens of stories about the old houses.

“The people who bought it before you didn’t stay longer than a week,” she said whilst refilling Jane’s tea cup for the third time. The tea was excellent. “No sense for adventure. And number twenty-eight, that’s the house further down the road, hasn’t been let or bought for, what, fifteen years? Twenty?”

“Twenty-three, my dear. The last neighbours moved out just when our Sanjana had been born, do you remember?” her husband replied. Jane asked:

“Is your house as crazy as ours?”

“A little,” Mr Gupta said. “The garage door opens to the dining room every second Tuesday, but… overall, it has quietened down here. Although it is quite amusing to watch those newspaper people try to find you two, and never being able to see further than the pavement. The houses don’t like nuisances. If they like their inhabitants, of course.”

So that was why no paparazzo had rang their doorbell yet. Jane felt all the more grateful for the house. Maybe there was such a thing as fate.

Mrs Gupta smiled:

“It’s good to have some young people around again. And to be married, too!”

Jane couldn’t bring it over herself to tell Mrs Gupta that with the official mourning time, it would take quite a bit longer until that wedding happened. Personally, she enjoyed the luxury of having all the time in the world – for the next three or four thousand years, anyway. Only now did she realise what that meant for the people around her. What it would mean to Darcy.

Evening came and brought Sif, on her own for a change. Betty’s and Gamora’s care seemed to have a soothing influence on Jay, at the moment, anyway. Sif told over dinner how Jay had found some interest in Betty’s work in the gardens, and Gamora kept entertaining her little circle of friends with stories from her many adventures in space. They had been able to train Jay in handling her Infinity Gem quite well, and now Sif wanted to make sure that Jane kept up with hers, too.

There was a large room downstairs they hadn’t furnished yet, and during the last days they had thrown in some of the things the cats liked to do nonsense with, so they wouldn’t do it elsewhere in the house. Comet and Meteor were not particularly pleased when their precious mess was cleared away, but turned all the more fascinated once the magically sparkling mists of the Infinity Gem wafted around them. To Jane’s surprise, the kittens just watched while she grasped for the Aether, called it to herself, pushed it away again. Sif merely sat on a chair, holding the seemingly insubstantial cloud by a little wisp of red-glowing nothingness.

“I don’t think you need my help any longer,” she yawned mockingly after a while.

“Are you sure?”

Thor had watched the whole thing from the doorstep. He wasn’t supposed to, but if the kittens were allowed to stay, then so was he.

“Honestly?” Sif leant back, yawning for real this time. “I think your betrothed is strong enough to wield the magic of the whole universe, and headstrong enough to make it do what she wants with a single stern glance.”

At this, Sif let go of the Gem – and Jane was ready.

She faintly heard Thor say something as the red glow once more filled her mind, but after a moment, even that dizziness faded. What stayed was a lingering sense of sharpness, an additional clearness to everything around her, and of course the sensation of the Gem in her soul, but apart from that… as if it had never been different.

Jane took a deep breath, for the first time in ages feeling whole again. She didn’t want to let go of her Gem again, not yet, when she had just regained it – but a look at Thor’s face, the silent plea in it, made her exhale again. As the glowing swirls showed themselves, Sif lunged forward, gripping the alien entity once more. Jane felt herself sway at the pull, but she caught herself. She wasn’t the frail damsel in distress anymore she had been weeks ago. So embarrassing.

To make sure Thor stopped looking like a puppy in the vet’s waiting area, she jumped onto her feet and went over to him, quickly hopping onto the tips of her feet to plant a little kiss on his cheek.

“Everything’s fine,” she smiled quietly. He closed his arms around her to keep her in place, and as much as Jane liked it, after another kiss, she climbed back down to the ground again. She had to change, she would change. Everyone did, all the time, and it was natural for him to be afraid. She just wanted him to know that he didn’t have to.

“Hey, what’s on TV?” Sif demanded as she went past them. Jane narrowed her eyes. It had been far too easy to persuade Sif of staying overnight. She loved television, too, especially if there were action movies, while Gamora couldn’t stand those.

Indeed there was a movie with lots of action and cars on TV, and Jane and Thor had no choice but to cuddle up on the big living room sofa together as Sif eagerly followed the happenings on screen. Jane tried to read a thesis paper on her laptop, Thor was staring at the pages of his novel (Terry Pratchett’s “Night Watch”, another recommendation of Darcy’s), but as Jane looked up and their eyes met, it was clear that neither of them was able to focus with all the noise from the TV. All of a sudden, Thor put away his book and leant over to nuzzle the nape of Jane’s neck. She jumped a little in surprise, but managed to close her laptop and put it safely on the table before leaning back to return the snuggling. Thor usually wasn’t quite so playful when they had guests.

“If you wanna nibble something, there’s some popcorn in the kitchen. Just pop it in the microwave,” Jane said as Thor kept kissing her earlobe. He smirked at her with a hint of mischief in his eyes that Jane couldn’t quite place:

“I feel like something sweet.”

From where she lay on her stomach in front of the television set, chin propped on her elbows, Sif snarled:

“Could you two shut up?”

Jane looked back at Thor, and suddenly the sparkle in his gaze made sense. Biting the inside of her cheek so she didn’t keep grinning from one ear to the other, Jane threw her arms around him:

“I love you, sweetie.”

Not particularly inventive, but it seemed to work.

“I love you more.”

“No, _I_ love you more.”

“Seriously?” Sif complained. With a wink, Thor said:

“But I’m much taller than you, so I love you more.”

“That just means my love for you is more condensed. I love you more.”

“Impossible… I’m going to bed,” Sif snapped, jumping onto her feet and stomping out of the room. Jane waited until the door had slammed shut before she dove for the remote control. A moment later, she and Thor both lay on their stomachs where Sif had been before, eagerly following a documentary about snow leopards. Neither noticed when the living room door opened again.

“I don’t believe it!” Sif said. Jane looked up.

“Did you make popcorn?”

* * *

Closing her eyes, Jay straightened up to bathe in autumn’s evening light. She loved the sight of soft gold on the endless green of the gardens, caressing those many different leaves and blossoms, dotting the meadows underneath ancient trees, and dancing over the glittering surfaces of ponds, streams and waterfalls. She felt tired from working in the vegetable patches for Betty all day, but the sun’s last warmth gave her energy. It embarrassed Jay to be reminded of her reptilian origin ever so often, but all the more so when something in her enjoyed its effects as much as she did now, taking in the sunshine.

The sound of voices in not so far a distance made her look up. Nothing but the palace lay close to the gardens, and usually this meant quietude at this time of the day, when the gardeners had already left. Although the light wind carried some of the words along, there was little doubt about the volume of that dialogue.

“Sounds like Darcy and Loki are calling it a day – literally,” Gamora mused. They had left Bruce in the library, where he was doing some research of his own.

“Sounds more like they’re calling each other names again.”

During the last days, Jay had tried very much not to keep Darcy so busy anymore. To her surprise, that had caused Darcy to turn herself into Loki’s assistant, much to Loki’s chagrin. Darcy had said that it was Jane’s idea, and somehow Loki had accepted that. Whatever acceptance looked like in his case, or rather, whatever it sounded like. The two were arguing nonstop, and every night when she returned for dinner, Darcy kept complaining about every single hair on Loki’s head. Or the lack thereof. Or whatever else she couldn’t stand.

“There could be worse for a dinner gong,” Betty grinned. “I’m starving.”

“So you like the food here?”

Betty laughed.

“Not everyone’s as picky as Jane. I grew up on my granny’s cooking, compared to that, everything’s light and healthy. How’s your diet going, by the way?”

Some days ago, Betty had suggested a more protein-based nutrition to Jay, to accommodate her reptilian nature. As little as she liked this, Jay had to admit that poultry had always been her favourite. If this was her god-given state of being, then she had to take care of it as best as she could. That much she had learnt from Gamora, although not in those words.

“It’s… it’s alright, I think. I feel okay.”

She felt better, although that was hard to acknowledge. Less tired, stronger… and somehow that scared her. Jay still couldn’t keep up the spell that kept her dragon features hidden, and as she was strengthening, so was the part of her that was dragon: her scales darkening, her talons curving, and as of the last morning, a strange sort of spikes covering the back of her head – as if her face as a reptile wasn’t ugly enough. Well, at least her hair grew thicker now. That was something. Hopefully she could soon improve the magic that made her look human.

“Check with the healers in a couple of days, okay?” Gamora interrupted her thoughts. “Just to make sure you get all the nutrition you need.”

“I will.”

More shouting from the palace relieved Jay of having to say any more, closely followed by an object flying out of a window, too small to recognise over the distance. Darcy’s work, undoubtedly.

Betty sighed:

“They’re so much like an old couple, it would be funny if it weren’t so sad.”

Jay’s ears twitched.

“Sad?”

“Two young people spitting at each other like that before they’ve even been in love, and one of them Loki?”

Sceptically, Jay looked up at the palace, where a veritable duet of shouting had begun.

“If those two haven’t been in love once, then what’s all that yelling for?” she said.

Her words were met with silence – relative silence, as Darcy used the moment to take up her point of argumentation again. No, it was Betty who stared at Jay with an open mouth, accentuated by the badly hidden smirk on Gamora’s face. Suddenly feeling rather awkward, Jay shrugged:

“I may be slow, but I’m also almost a thousand years old.”

Gamora chuckled, while Betty shook her head.

“Not slow at all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mind you, they weren't even arguing about their past relationship (because that would be the number one palace gossip immediately).


	27. Chapter 27

New Year’s Eve, and it was raining as if all the waters of self-pity in the universe had decided to pour down at once. As much as Darcy would have liked to turn out her usual Florence Nightingale self, after having returned from a whole three days of work with Loki, she found that too much to ask for. It was Jane’s own fault for sending her.

Sometimes she didn’t understand Jane – no, that was wrong. There were a lot of times when Darcy didn’t understand Jane, but usually she didn’t care enough, or it didn’t matter. They were all mad here. Sometimes though, she just didn’t feel ready to go down that rabbit hole. Today was such a day.

It should have been easy: a simple appointment in a hotel’s conference room with some journalists about the recent happenings, something Jane had to get accustomed with, now that she was engaged to an alien, a prince and an Avenger, all in one person. As always, all Jane cared about was her work, and as always, everyone ignored her wishes. That wasn’t what anyone would call fair, sure, but Jane should have expected it either way. Should have used in her favour. Darcy would have done so.

Instead, Jane had only responded if addressed in person, and always awkwardly, in a monotonous voice, clumsy as a cow on roller skates and not daring to look at anyone. Thor had done most of the talking, and that could have been Jane’s excuse… hadn’t he suddenly stared at the screen of his phone, murmured an excuse and left the room. They had heard him fly off, and that was that.

“Jane? You okay in there?” she asked now, standing in front of Jane’s bathroom door with two noisily meowing kittens. No answer, except for even more complaints from the feline side of the family. Of course. “Sorry that I carried you out of that broom cupboard, but I wanted to be home before ‘Dancing With The Stars’ was on.”

If Darcy hadn’t been so sick and tired of having to sit through yet another audience, or what felt like one, she’d have announced an end after Thor’s leave and dragged Jane out of there. As Darcy hadn’t paid attention over the latest game on her phone, Jane had had all the time to bring herself into a fit of anxiety – that much Darcy understood – within just a few questions from the journalists, and within minutes hadn’t been able to get out another word. Darcy had only looked up from her phone when Jane had run out of the room. Coaxing her out of that broom cupboard had been harder than persuading the assembled journalists that yeah, this was absolutely normal. Just a bit of stage fright. No biggie.

“Boss, it’s okay if you decide to live in there happily forever after, but your fiancé’s not gonna forgive me if you miss lunch. I’m gonna have Chinese takeaway, do you want that or leftovers?”

Technically Darcy knew that Jane preferred the frozen-and-reheated remnants of meals from days before, but she couldn’t miss the chance of bringing some decent food onto the table instead of the rabbit stuff Thor cooked up all the time. People in established, comfy relationships weren’t supposed to stay super-model lean and athletic, it just wasn’t fair. Couldn’t be healthy either.

“Come on, let’s go get your lab ready. Discover some new galaxies. Like we did when there was nothing on TV in the desert.”

When Jane hadn’t been so busy having a boyfriend, anyway. Oh, and they had Pay-TV now, too.

“Come on, open the door –“

Only then did Darcy notice that said door had never been locked.

Jane sat in the hindmost corner of the vast bathroom, very much like Jay used to do. She was still dressed in her smart suit, although it was full of creases now. That Jane sat hugging her legs, her face hidden behind her knees, didn’t improve her state of dress very much, but then, Jane hated this particular outfit. Darcy hated that the sort of clothes had to be ironed, and that there was no Iron Man around when one was needed.

“It’s alright, I’ve told everyone that you were worried about some super-important astro-sciency stuff and that in case they interpreted anything else into any of that, I’d tell Pepper.”

That had worked. Not on Jane though, for she sobbed, her face a tearful picture of misery:

“I’ve messed it all up, it’s all my fault if this is all over the tabloids tomorrow and… and he hasn’t called or texted, nothing.”

She lifted her hand in which she was clutching her phone, now quite wet with tears, too. Darcy shooed the cats out of the room.

“Yeah, that’s what he always does, remember?” She made herself crouch down in front of Jane, a position Darcy found more than uncomfortable, and worse than that: unflattering. “If you’re as clever as I think you are, you should make him do something special for you whenever he disappears without notice. Why don’t you write some things down and every time he returns you can choose one and –“

“What if – he –“ Jane sobbed again. “I’ve tried to call Steve and the others, but nobody’s answering their phone.”

They both knew what that meant.

“Right.” Darcy heaved herself onto her feet, cursing whoever had invented gravity – silently, or Jane would have been very cross with her. “Nothing we can do now, can we?” she asked, knowing fully well that there was something: Jane’s Infinity Gem. Out of question, and she could only cross her fingers that Jane’s scatterbrain thought so, too.

Darcy pulled Jane to a standing position, for there was no way she’d snail around on the tiles again, and started to dab her boss’s red, puffy eyes with a wet towel. If moisturisers had nightmares, then they surely contained Jane Foster. Out of a reflex, Darcy checked if Jane had put up the list of beauty products she was supposed to use, a list Darcy had printed and laminated for her. It was taped next to the bathroom mirror.

“Technically it’s my duty to prescribe you a full spa day with facials and massages, but I don’t want you to jump at my throat when I have cucumber slices on my eyes. Kitchen it is.”

If there was one good aspect about Jane’s state of mind, then it was that she did whatever Darcy said without so much as engaging a single brain cell. After having changed into clothes that could do with getting crumpled, they did a short tour through the lab, but Jane’s robot personality for a change seemed to know even less what to do here than Darcy did. By that time their food was delivered, and they settled down for lunch in the kitchen.

“Jane.”

“Hm?”

As if she hadn’t just shovelled a whole box of super chilli into her mouth, Jane continued to stare at a point in space even her brilliant astronomer’s mind wouldn’t have been able to track down.

“Nothing.”

Darcy made sure that Jane had a big chunk of bread for puddings.

This rather unusual meal plan seemed to have another side effect than just saving Jane from smoke coming out of her ears, for she got up wordlessly and headed over to where her baking bowls were stashed. From the amounts of dry yeast bubbling up in warm milk minutes later, Darcy could only conclude one thing:

There were very breadish days to come.

* * *

Tony had offered to have him flown back home, but Thor had declined. Maybe that way would have been quicker, maybe it would have been more direct, but still he preferred to fly on his own. There was only one person he wanted to be with. Jane or no-one, but better, by a thousand times, Jane.

Jane, poor Jane. How could he return to her, having left her like this, once again? How could he ask for the comfort of her company, the warmth of sharing a home with her, if he had gone away in such manner?

Rain was pouring down when he could finally make out the lights of home in front of him. Usually they only kept one or two rooms illuminated, to better be able to see the stars, and so as not to distract Jane’s newly put-up telescopes from their faraway galaxies. Tonight, however, every single lamp in the house shone brightly beneath the night sky, guiding him home. All of a sudden, Thor’s fears of what Jane would say when he returned were forgotten. Not the ones of what Darcy would do, obviously, but that he would have to face like a man of honour.

He was about to land at the front porch, but when he spotted someone through the windows of Darcy’s salon, chose a balcony on the first floor instead. There she lay curled up on a sofa, his Jane, so small with his bright red cape wrapped tightly around her. It was all he needed to see.

The sight of her so lonely, not knowing he was there, very much able to see her, only amplified his guilt, and so he carefully knocked against the glass panes of the balcony door. It stood open, but he waited for the coolness of the rainy air to gently wake her up. No use – she was on her feet within the fracture of a moment, still entangled in the red cape.

Before he could so much as say a word, she had pulled open the balcony door, thrown her arms around his neck and kissed him, ignoring the rain, the chilliness, and that he was trembling to the cores of his bones. No human of such shortness should have been able to haul him, a man of thrice her weight, over to the sofa – except for a physicist, of course. As good as it felt to just let himself fall, Jane not breaking their kiss even once…

“The water. It will spoil Darcy’s sofa,” was the first words Thor could get out. The irony was not lost even upon him.

“My shirt’s half soaked and I’m not complaining,” Jane snarled back, bending into another kiss so he could not reply. Only when he called the spell that made his mail vanish, she added: “And now it’s fully soaked.”

“I’m sorry. What I wanted to say –”

“Let’s get you dry first, okay? I don’t want to catch a sneeze.”

Although reaching for someone’s hand should have been easier for her, Jane had the odd preference of grasping someone’s wrist or lower arm when she wanted them to go somewhere. That she took Thor’s hand so often, even if it was her palm to the back of his fingers, made him a little proud. She did that now, taking his hand and walking out to the corridor with him.

“Darcy? He’s back!” Jane shouted in no particular direction at all.

“Cool,” came the languid reply from downstairs. Somehow, and Thor could not explain why, this apparent disinterest had a strangely soothing effect. Everything was normal.

“Would you mind calling Sif?” he asked as loudly as he dared. He did not want to hurt poor Jane’s sensitive ears. “I am afraid it is urgent.”

“Cool,” Darcy replied again. Cool.

Although the scratches on his face were already healing, Jane did not look amused when she looked at them closely, having made him sit down on the rim of the bathtub. Then her gaze dropped downward.

“What’s this?” she sharply said, gingerly touching the edge of a dark stain on his shirt.

“Nothing. Not mine.”

“Let me see.”

As gently as he could, Thor took hold of Jane’s hand when she tried to lift the seam of the shirt. He should have known that it would not work.

“I may have made a complete fool of myself by messing up playing the perfect damsel in distress,” Jane said so quietly it burned, “so I may as well fulfil the cliché and patch you up. One last time.”

Thor did not know what he feared less, having to leave Jane or the prospect of taking her along once she had regained her Infinity Gem. Grinding his teeth, he took his shirt off.

The wound at his side had been treated so expertly that no more than a pinkish outline could be seen anymore – a miracle, even for someone healing as quickly as he could. In about a day’s time at most not a trace would be left. Jane’s arched brows said everything he had expected.

“Tony has hired a new doctor, Doctor Cho. She treated this.”

He nodded at his side. Jane just looked at him, so he added:

“And I think she… how do you say? She has a…”

“Crush on you?” Jane grinned. Turning on the water to fill the bathtub, she said: “She isn’t just brilliant then, she has excellent taste, too.”

Her lips gently closed his, taking the burden of replying from him.

She insisted on washing his hair when their bath was ready, and he gratefully leant back against her while she massaged his head with shampoos and whatnot. Smiling, he imagined how, as he could not see her behind him, she read the order of each shampoo from one of two lists on the walls of the bathroom. Darcy had explained to him that the products on the list were colour-coded: black for necessary, blue for optional, pink for fun. Jane hardly looked at the one above the sink anymore, unless she was stressed out, but their long baths together apparently made her look for colours. Closing his eyes, he listened to her heartbeat, so calm, so steady.

“I feel not even scared anymore…” he thought without noticing that he was speaking those thoughts. “… just… sad.”

“I know,” she replied. It was the truth, because she was always speaking the truth. And it was enough, more than enough.

Sif was waiting for them in the kitchen, or rather, Gamora was waiting to snarl that she would give them five minutes.

“I have a five-course dinner from the other end of the universe dished up in my ship, and if the –“ Gamora made a coughing noise. “- from –“ Another cough. “have warmed when we return –“

“It will not take longer than a moment,” Thor assured. He quickly walked over to where Sif and the two kittens were eyeing a stack of takeaway food boxes a tad too hungrily.

“Can you take care of this for me?” he asked as the sceptre materialised in his hand. It was the staff Loki had wielded when he had come to Earth. Maria Hill had been able to track it down, the Avengers had retrieved it together, and so he had taken it to where it would cause no more harm. Well, after Pepper had ended Tony’s wishes to research the sceptre with a simple “Tony, _no_ ”. The woman knew to cast spells with no more than the tone of her voice.

Sif plucked the gem from the sceptre, examined it shortly, and simply cracked open its blue shell – to reveal a smaller gem inside. She placed the tip of her index finger on the gem, promptly followed by Jane and Gamora growling in unamused unison.

“Yes, I think I can,” Sif said, unceremoniously storing away the gem in the pocket at her belt. “Right. I think I have a dinner to attend.”

“About time,” Gamora added, grabbing Sif’s arm and vanishing through the kitchen door before anyone could thank them for visiting. Darcy nodded at the food on the table.

“Dinner, both of you.”

“I _had_ dinner,” Jane said. “With you.”

“Like you ever eat more than a sparrow.”

Jane sighed sharply as she dunked some bread into a creamy sauce from the food boxes and stuffed it into her mouth. Thor tried to hide his grin. Darcy had a way with Jane.

“Right,” Darcy said, already in the door, “now that Ken is back, I’ll go for a walk. New Year’s Eve and stuff. Find a party. Have some fun.”

“Please do,” Jane snarled back. Darcy vanished, and minutes later, the front door audibly fell into its lock. Thor said carefully:

“Maybe you should have thanked her. For taking care of everything here.”

“Sure,” Jane mumbled through a mouthful of chicken curry. “But then she’d have called an exorcist.”

“I understand.”

“Uhuh,” Jane nodded.

“Who is Ken?”

As she deemed her rice more important than an answer to his question, he left it at that.

Fatigue came quickly after the lavish meal, but Thor did not want to sleep yet. He did not say so when they finally lay in bed together, but he enjoyed Jane’s embraces too much.

“And you say you are not skilled in knowing how people feel,” he whispered into her ear.

“I’m not. And with most people, I don’t care. Too much emotion,” she growled.

_Too few a people to take care of you_ , Thor wanted to say, but didn’t. That was a thing of the past, he had sworn to himself. He still remembered her words, spoken in half-sleep one night: _“I had just thought that I’d never get used to life being a constant row of disappointments – and then you came and I thought maybe it wasn’t. Until you went away again. If this is a dream or not, it doesn’t matter. I’m always afraid that it’s gonna end.”_ It was something he hadn’t understood, although that he only understood much later, after a casual talk with Darcy which had quickly become unsettling after the topic had changed to his brother. _“Disappointment is much harder to understand for those who always got what they wanted, especially when it’s the disappointment of others who aren’t so lucky.”_ Maybe he still did not understand, although he had to. He had to.

“By the way, I’m supposed to take this wherever I go now, when you’re not around,” Jane said, grasping for a glitter unicorn plushie that had been stored safely out of sight behind the bed’s headrest for the past week. It had been Darcy’s Christmas gift for Jane, and hand-sewn on top. It was supposed to help Jane in dealing with stress, although Thor still wondered how Darcy imagined that to happen. His own gift had been a pair of shorts, with a hand-stitched word on the seam: “Jane’s”. That he understood.

“I assume that means I have to be with you at all times then,” he tried to cheer Jane up, despite the knowledge that it was a clumsy joke.

“I don’t mind,” she replied. “But I guess I owe Darcy… haven’t had a breakdown that bad in a long time. She learnt a bit of new vocab outside that broom cupboard, together with the rest of the corridor.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t just have left like that,” he said quickly. She hadn’t given him any chance to apologise yet. It had not been alright, he should have told her, but there hadn’t been a way with so many people around, there hadn’t –

“It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have done any interviews, period. I should have known that it could still happen, no matter how good the last months have been.”

That, at the very least, should mean that he had not quite messed up everything. Nothing to rely on too heavily, however.

“Do you feel better now?” he asked. Jane thought for a while, which was not quite relieving.

“I think so. Better, anyway. You?”

The question surprised him, but he replied truthfully:

“Better.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“You tell me if not?”

“I promise.”

Jane sighed, a motion Thor sensed rather than heard.

“I just hope everyone else is okay. The last thing anyone needed was me freaking out about nothing… I’m just so glad Jay wasn’t around. Sam’s called, she can attend the meeting of his counselling group next week if she feels ready, and I think she could try. I’m not an expert, but she’s never been better than now.”

“That is good news. Gamora said that she has been to the gardens with her every day.”

When Jane did not reply, Thor looked up at her face. She appeared to be deeply in thought.

“There is someone else you worry about, am I right?” he asked. “Is it Darcy? Is she not okay?”

“Darcy has never been okay,” Jane scowled. “I don’t know why, she’s never told me and I’m not asking. I mean, I tried, but you know Darcy.”

That was true. Jane continued:

“I think – I might be wrong, of course, but if Darcy’s as happy as she can be so long as she has a roof over her head and something to do, then that’s okay with me. I’d love to help her more, but only if she really wants.”

All of a sudden, Thor felt Jane’s fingers caress his left eyebrow. “So, what do you really want?” she asked.

He looked at her questioningly.

“It’s a New Year’s Eve tradition,” Jane explained. “People make up resolutions for themselves, like, when they want to quit smoking or lose weight. But I think it’s easier to make a wish. If it doesn’t come true, it’s just been a wish, and you don’t have to feel bad for not achieving something you didn’t really want anyway. But if it does, well, that’s good.”

He tried to give her a smile, but could not quite hold it on his face.

“I’m just… I’m afraid that I am not sure. What I really want, besides being here with you.”

“Well, you have your first driving lesson scheduled next week. You’re definitely the oldest man who ever learnt how to drive a car,” Jane smirked. In a more serious tone, she added: “There’s been e-mails from some universities who want to invite you for discussions about your planetoid. You could give a lecture. Write articles even.”

He thought about that. Then he asked:

“Could I do something that would make me feel less like… more like a human?”

The question invited a snarky reply and he knew so, but to Jane’s credit, she said promptly and without the slightest hint of sarcasm:

“Write about something else then. Your knowledge of science is much bigger than anyone’s here on Earth, no matter which subject. What you taught Jay about mathematics was amazing.”

His heartbeat quickened at both the surprise and the pride he felt at Jane’s words. She, the most brilliant person he knew in the whole universe, would not lie to him. So if she really thought so…

“You really think so?”

“Yeah. Don’t waste your talent just because you think you’re not smart. Advice from one of my professors, bless her.”

Bless that woman indeed.

Thor only realised how deeply he had sunk into thoughts when the distant ringing of church bells woke him out of them. In the darkness, he could just so make out Jane smiling at him.

“Happy new year,” she whispered before lightly kissing his hair. “Here’s to a lot of new beginnings.”

He felt his face slowly return the smile. Here was to the woman who had taught him that new beginnings – the simplicity, the small things – were something to enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is what I made out of "Avengers - Age of Ultron": five seconds of Pepper being Pepper.
> 
> I wrote this chapter shortly after watching the movie, of which I didn't enjoy that much except for Clint's family/Natasha's friendship with them all and the introduction of Helen Cho, the latter of whom I'm trying very hard to bring into this story now because she's just that cool, and just the character I was still looking for - although that will need some more preparation. I hope she'll be featured more prominently in future Marvel movies.


	28. Chapter 28

The sun had been up when Jay and Gamora had arrived in the city, but at this time of the year, it was not strong enough to warm anything. Freshly fallen snow covered every surface outside, reminding Jay of the many winters she had spent in a state of hibernation, half-dreaming, half-awake. She rarely dreamt of the sun, although those visions had always been her favourite.

Neither Betty nor Bruce had wanted to leave the warm world at the other end of the stars, and so Gamora had volunteered to accompany Jay on her first meeting with Sam. It was just as well. Jay knew how to find her way in the human world, and she was more than grateful for the calm kindness with which Gamora always treated her. She had talked to Sam on the phone, but still could not help feeling quite nervous. It was good not to be alone.

They had only been waiting in a large entrance hall for some minutes when Sam showed up.

“Sorry, the coffee machine kept me,” he said with an apologetic smile. It made Jay feel a little less nervous right away. “The diva of the refreshments table. Would you like a cup?”

Gamora did, while Jay was very happy with a cup of herbal tea. They were early, so Sam used the chance to show them around. He had already explained on the phone what happened at such a meeting, but it helped to visualise it.

“Any questions?” Sam asked after he had finished his descriptions.

“Uhm… where do I sit?”

This made him laugh.

“Wherever you want.” However grateful Jay was for not being called a very small animal again, such as a kitten, the prospect of having to choose one of the many completely identical chairs left her at a loss. Sam seemed to notice, for he added: “The last row tends to be popular with newbies.”

That sounded good.

“Hey Sam, how’s the coffee machine?” a voice from behind said. It belonged to a short, wiry woman, clad in elegant but comfortable-looking clothes, her hair in a neat ponytail.

“Perfectly working, of course,” Sam replied. Turning to Gamora and Jay, he said: “This is Barbara Sanchez, she hosts the meetings and offers private counselling, too.”

“Call me Barbara,” the woman said with a firm smile, stretching out a hand. Jay hurried to shake it. “We keep it at first names here.”

“I thought you were a counsellor,” Gamora asked Sam. Barbara said:

“Oh no, he just comes around to impress me with his engineering skills. I think he breaks the coffee machine on purpose. Grab a cookie while they last.”

She waved before she went back to the entrance, where other members of the counselling group had started to arrive. Gamora nodded to some chairs in the hindmost corner of the room, where the three of them sat down, Jay in the middle. Another thing she added to her sheer endless list of things to be grateful for.

“I used to counsel a group of veterans in another city,” Sam said quietly while all around them, people sat down, some getting a cup of coffee, even talking, others keeping to themselves. Some cast Gamora curious glances, but Jay they mostly ignored. “But with the Avengers and everything, I couldn’t keep it up, so… I’m attending Barbara’s group, she’s really good, and she doesn’t mind that sometimes I let my former job hang out. Around the coffee machine.”

Jay nodded, although she was not quite sure she had understood. Had Sam not been able to continue because he did not have enough time anymore, or was it for another reason?

The meeting began before she could find an answer for herself. It was just as Sam had described: people talked about their problems, traumatic things that had happened to them mostly, and if or if not they had found ways to deal with it. Sometimes there was a little advice, too, but mostly it was about talking. Jay could not help but feel a pang of disappointment. She had hoped for answers. She should have known that it was not as simple as that.

Sam ushered his two guests out of the meeting room as soon as Barbara had dismissed the group. They went to a car park close-by, closed for reconstruction, where scorch marks on the ground spoke of how Gamora and Jay had arrived on the planet. Sam said:

“Sorry for the dash. I’m sure you didn’t want people to stare. Usually new members introduce themselves…”

“Thanks,” Jay managed to say with a smile.

“… but as you just wanted to see what it was like and if you’d like to come more often…”

“Yes, that’d be great.”

It took her about two seconds to notice that she had said these words, and before knowing if that was really what she wanted. Oh well. As a nun whom Jay had known a long time ago had used to say in such moments: if you were at a loss for words, the Lord liked to help out.

“Great,” Sam smiled back. “Next week then?”

“Okay, yes.”

Sam just-so managed to say bye before the wormhole engulfed Gamora and Jay, about to carry them back across the galaxy.

“I thought humans were all so keen on shaking hands,” Gamora mused when they walked through the inner palace courtyard.

Jay could not help but keep on her smile. Maybe this human way of healing her depression was not as simple as she had hoped, but she could not help feeling that it was the way God had meant her to take.

* * *

“Are you sure you want to go?” Thor asked, doing a very good job of hiding his worry, she had to give him credit for that.

“I’m sure I don’t want to go,” Jane replied through her gritted teeth, “but I’m also sure that Darcy will never stop nagging if we don’t do this whole romantic dinner thing at least once.”

“And repeat to her how little enjoyable it was.”

“Every five minutes. On a good day.”

The joke worked, it relaxed them both a little. Still, and despite the warmth in the car, Jane could not help but shiver. The combination of fashionable coat and silken evening dress felt wrong for the weather, not protective at all, and exposing on top. Only this noon, the clothes had been fitted to her, and barely so. Jane and Thor had a safe word now: poptart. It meant that one of them was uncomfortable and wanted to leave. The situation at the tailor’s had been five to poptart.

Jane parked the car – Thor was excelling at his driving lessons and accordingly fidgety with excitement at every move of the machine – on a car park a block further down from the restaurant where Darcy had made a reservation for them. The place was exclusive enough to have a parking service, but Jane wanted to change the trainers she had worn for driving for her high-heeled evening stilts in her own time.

She regretted this decision when they walked down the short way to the restaurant. Snow had finally reached the city, riding a cold wave so devastating that absolutely everything outside for more than five minutes froze into a popsicle. Jane cursed whoever had come up with the idea that it was perfectly acceptable for women to walk around with nothing but nylons covering their ankles in all weathers.

The receptionist recognised them immediately, had their coats stored away and a waiter show them to their table. Jane had no idea what a good table in a restaurant was, but she definitely didn’t like sitting in the centre of the room. She could feel the attention of absolutely everyone settling onto them, and the place was packed. They were no doubt the restaurant’s new advertising billboard.

“I hope you’re not hungry,” she murmured when they studied the menu, most of which was written in languages Jane did not speak. “The longer the description, the less you’ll find on your plate.”

Thor didn’t look amused.

“Pizza later?”

“Would you mind kebab?”

“Not at all.”

Jane let Thor choose the wine, so he had something to do while she tried to warm her feet under the tablecloth. She was too short for the chair, and the high-heeled pumps did not improve her posture.

“Would you like to order?” their waiter said, causing Jane to jump a little. Feeling her face turn a particularly heated shade of red, she grasped for words, but none would leave her mouth. As if he had not noticed, Thor asked the waiter:

“Is there anything among the –“ He quickly cast a quizzical look at Jane. “- fish dishes that you would recommend?”

All Jane had to do was to nod her head when something she knew came up. She was very grateful to the waiter speaking rather slowly without appearing unnerved. Before he went to communicate their order to the kitchen, Jane mouthed a silent “thank you” at him. She was quite sure to see a smile flicker over the man’s otherwise entirely professional face.

“I hope you like fish,” Thor’s voice brought Jane’s thoughts back to the table. Feeling her blushing spread all up to the roots of her hair again, she quickly said:

“You saved me.”

Before Jane could say any more, she felt Thor’s ankle brush her own. With a hint of quiet alarm in his voice, he said:

“Your feet are cold. Are you sure you –“

“It’s okay. Really.”

Under the long tablecloth, he pressed both his ankles against hers so as to warm them. Finally the heat left Jane’s face and was replaced by a big, grateful smile.

“Everything’s better with you.”

“Even this?” Thor grinned back with his brows arched doubtfully.

“Everything. The good things, the bad things, the food, the baths, the s… snogging,” Jane said, hesitating when she felt the disapproving gaze of an elderly man on her who was sitting at a table opposite theirs.

“What, jealous?” she snarled. He looked away immediately. Jane looked back at Thor, regretting it instantly when they both had to try very hard not to laugh.

The food turned out about as disappointing as Jane had expected: tiny servings that were far too rich and overly spiced, as if to make up for the lack of size. It didn’t make any sense.

“Thinking about what you could improve about the sauce?” Jane asked after at least fifteen minutes of not being quite sure if Thor was looking at her or was lost in the kitchen of his dreams. His facial expressions in both cases didn’t differ much, a fact that made Jane a little giddy.

“Thinking about how beautiful you are,” he replied quietly with a warm smile. “Even with cold feet.”

“Literally,” Jane growled in unison with her stomach. _Stop thinking about kebab, Foster._ “You look quite handsome, too,” she smiled. Well, he did, in a simple-but-perfect dark blue suit and tie. Somehow Jane started to understand the appeal of seeing one’s partner well-dressed. On the other hand… he looked gorgeous in a t-shirt and jogging trousers. Or just jogging trousers. _Stop thinking about your fiancé in jogging pants, Foster._

“Maybe this would be a reason to do this more often then?” Thor tried.

“Nah. I can’t hug you in something that’s not allowed to get creases.”

“Here’s to me for trying to find arguments for a scientist.”

Jane’s smirk was interrupted by the arrival of their puddings. She looked down at her plate. Up at Thor. Said:

“Now I know how you feel.”

“Poptart flavour?”

“Definitely.”

Although the air bit her face when they stepped out of the restaurant door, Jane took a deep, relieved breath. The whole date had not even lasted for an hour so far. Far too long on Jane’s scale.

“What kebab store do you wanna try?” she asked as they walked down the almost empty sidewalk back to the car park. Thor replied:

“That depends. Do you want to pick up the food on the way, or would you like to go home and change first?”

“Nah, you won’t get me out of my nest of blankets once I’m – wait.”

Thor had seen the figure in the side street before Jane had started to break into a run. She stumbled over the slippery snow, only to come to a halt on her knees next to the person lying on the cold ground.

“Excuse me? Can you hear me?”

The woman did not open her eyes.

“First aid kit, car!” Jane shouted at Thor while she fumbled her phone out of her purse, but he had already taken off his coat to cover the woman before running back to the car park. He returned just when Jane had called an ambulance. Together they tried to wake up the woman, wrap her warmly, but it didn’t look good. It seemed to take hours until the paramedics arrived. They didn’t allow Jane to come along in the ambulance, they hardly even told her which hospital was in charge.

Too exhausted to so much as cry, Jane didn’t mind when Thor carried her back to the car. He started the motor, so it would get warm inside, then let Jane sit down on the driver’s seat. She wanted to go home very much, but her feet were frozen. They ached terribly when she tried to put on her trainers. Lacking distraction, Jane felt the sobs coming up in her chest.

She felt Thor’s embrace, so warm, and couldn’t hold back the tears any longer – however the man did that from the passenger seat, she had no idea. Maybe it was because being so large, he had learnt to squeeze himself into just about any narrowness.

“That’s what we should do,” she barked through teeth rattling with cold. “Not – not fancy dresses and – and – five forks. _Helping_ people.”

Thor looked at her with a questioning gaze, but Jane didn’t stop.

“What’s all that stuff with the Avengers even about? We sit around waiting for your brother to get bored again? Is Tony gonna construct a cyborg you can take apart?”

He had backed away, but only to look at her, his arms still resting safely around her.

“What’s it good for if you’re so skilled, so powerful, and don’t use it to go out and help those who need help? Who ask for help?” Jane spat, all of a sudden out of breath. Oh God. She’d done it again, ranted at him, when it wasn’t his fault at all. The Avengers were a leftover of SHIELD’s, and if anyone was in charge, then it was Steve, who clearly had to worry about other things right now, and…

“You’re right.”

Thor’s quiet voice made her start. Still out of words, Jane just looked at him, and he looked back.

“You’re right. I will talk to Steve when we are home.”

“What?”

She hadn’t meant it like that, had she? Not so immediately, not so –

“I said that you are right, and as a human of these times, you know these things better than Steve or I do.”

“I wasn’t… I didn’t want to be disrespectful.”

Instead of replying, Thor just gave her an amused smile. Then he nodded at the steering wheel.

“Can you drive, or would you prefer to take a taxi?”

Jane tried to wiggle her toes. Her feet still ached, but she could move them perfectly in the comfortable shoes, and her hands didn’t shake any longer.

With the streets quite empty at this time and in the cold, they arrived home only about half an hour later. Thor called Steve, Jane called the hospital, and Darcy, who was still at home, phoned the delivery service for their kebab. Amongst the three of them, only Jane stayed unsuccessful. The hospital would not tell her anything about the woman’s state of health.

Words couldn’t express her gratitude for her two best friends sitting on either side of her, alternating in hugging each other and making sure Jane ate some dinner. Her appetite hadn’t returned home with her. What wasn’t numbed of her brain wondered about Darcy’s show of affection. Jane hoped it didn’t mean that Darcy was in some kind of distress, but she wasn’t sure if it was okay to ask. Maybe she was just afraid.

Jane wished she could have felt tired after the meal, but all she felt was a deep emptiness through which ghosts of thoughts floated. The cats, who had sneaked into the kitchen and now cowered under the table, kept nudging Jane’s hands for treats, but she only scratched them behind their ears absentmindedly. Why hadn’t they seen the woman on their way to the restaurant, had she been there already? Why hadn’t they left earlier, when it wasn’t enjoyable to begin with? Should she have insisted on coming with the paramedics?

“You’re still cold. How about a bath?” Thor asked quietly, the kitchen around them miraculously tidy. Darcy had left without Jane noticing. She fumbled two cat treats out of her jeans’ pocket and fed them to the cats, who understood the wink and galloped out of the kitchen.

“Okay.” Anything would have been fine with her. Or not. There wasn’t much of a difference.

Thor lifted her up in his arms, but Jane found the will to resist.

“I can walk.”

“Jane –“

“I’m not the one who needs help.”

“But you can’t help others if you don’t take care of yourself. I know you’re not good at noticing some things –“ he interrupted her when she was about to say the same thing. Maybe she did repeat herself. “- but that just means you can take hints from those around you, those who care for you. Those you care for.”

He stopped, but it didn’t sound as if he had finished. Jane looked up at him, worried. Finally he said:

“Sometimes it helps others when they can care for you. So they don’t feel quite so lost.”

She lifted a hand to stroke his hair. It was one of those rare moments when she could see his real age, those more than a thousand years, and the vulnerable young man those more than a thousand years had formed. She leant her forehead against his, making sure to protect that fragile moment. Protect him. If there was something to fill that emptiness with, then it was this: taking care of him.

“Your tub’s ready,” Darcy said from the doorway. Jane frowned as a thought hit her: maybe Darcy’s behaviour was so amiable because she felt sorry for the disastrous date she had planned.

“What do you think?” Thor murmured, his face brushing Jane’s cheek and ear. For the first time in hours, she felt something that wasn’t pain or numbness, even if it was just a tickle.

Darcy patted Thor’s arm before leaving the kitchen:

“Don’t swim too far, duck when there’s flying fish, and most of all: have fun diving for pearls.”

Thor looked at Jane, who shrugged. Something in his gaze told her that there weren’t real pearls in the bathtub.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Jay will have some chapters for themselves in the future.


	29. Chapter 29

“The hospital still won’t tell me anything about that woman, not even if they’ve found out her name,” Jane said. She had tried to phone again in the morning, with no success.

“They have to be discrete, that’s how it is,” Mrs Powel replied calmly. She poured Jane a cup of tea and sat down with her at her small kitchen table. The flat looked remarkable already, cosy and like a real home. How Mrs Powel had managed this, on top of everything she had on her hands with the trust of G. Street, Jane had no idea.

“She may be ill, or lost her way,” the elderly woman continued. “In nights as cold as this, there’s buses going ‘round to make sure nobody without a roof of their own is freezing in the streets.”

“Still…”

“Jane, you can’t save the world.”

“Not yet,” Jane growled.

The doorbell rang. About a minute later, Mrs Powel ushered Jay and Thor into the kitchen.

“Sit down, sit down!” she waved her hands, two more tea cups filled and another plate of biscuits on the table before the two aliens could follow. “How was church?”

“Good,” Jay smiled. She had returned from space for the Christmas service, and Thor had happily accompanied her while Jane paid visits to Mrs Blonski and their other friends in G. Street. His fascination with all things human just kept growing.

Mrs Powel smiled at them both, setting a pot of thick milk on the stove. Jane couldn’t suppress a little meowing noise. Mrs Powel’s handmade hot chocolate was poetry in a cup.

“As I was about to say to Jane, there’s good news, too,” Mrs Powel said as she took the pot off the heat to melt some dark chocolate into it, followed by vanilla and ground cinnamon. Her audience knew better than to ask if she wanted any help in the kitchen. They had only tried once.

Dividing the delicious-smelling chocolate drink over four mugs, Mrs Powel continued:

“The trust is going well, and with all the media attention there’s been quite steady an income of donations, so we have started to look for a second house.”

Jane did not join the chorus of happy exclamations that met this announcement. She just smiled. It was as if the sun had finally risen, taking a bit of what weighed off her heart.

“And when is your next meeting with your therapy group?” Mrs Powel asked Jay.

Jane bit her lip. The half-dragon was quite touchy on the subject, but…

“The day after tomorrow,” Jay smiled. “I can call you if you want. Tell you how it was.”

“Do that, child, do that,” Mrs Powel agreed. Jay may have been a grown woman of nine-hundred years, but that obviously hadn’t kept her from adopting a grandmother. She was visibly better, as Jane noticed with a little sigh of relief. Only about a month ago, an excitedly babbling Jay alternating between sips of tea and hot chocolate wouldn’t have been within the range of possibilities at all.

“… and Thor is going to write a book, we made notes this morning before church.”

“Are you? Good on you!” said Mrs Powel.

“Are you?” Jane grinned quietly, upon which Thor answered with a cheeky smile and a kiss on her head, one arm around her.

“It isn’t decided, I do not know at all if I am capable of such a challenge.”

Mrs Powel was interested nonetheless.

“Is it a novel?” 

“I’m afraid I’m not that capable at all. It is a mere essay on mathematics.”

Jane tried to suppress a snort. It was funny how Thor automatically switched back to his terribly formal way of expressing himself when he was nervous. She exchanged a covert glance with Jay, who had a hard time not to grin from ear to ear.

“And what about you?” Mrs Powel woke Jane from her inner giggling. “What have you done recently?”

“Had a cry over my favourite candy bar being out of stock in the station shop this morning,” Jane growled, her mood having cooled off to match the temperatures outside.

This had Mrs Powel chuckle. She reached for the pot of hot chocolate on the stove and poured the remains into Jane’s already empty cup. Jane stirred the liquid, her face blushed to the roots of her hair. It wasn’t just the granddaughter treatment she got from just about everyone these days, it was the shame of being more than two decades too old for throwing tantrums, over sweets, and in public.

They didn’t stay much longer. While Jay and Thor put on their shoes and coats in the hallway, Mrs Powel held Jane back in the kitchen.

“That wasn’t the chocolate that upset you, it was what happened last night. You have to learn how to recharge when something has worn you down. But also that sometimes, you can’t stop it. Let it go by.” She dropped the pot of chocolate into the sink. “My brother was just like you.”

At least going home didn’t take long, and the train was almost empty. Jane sat on her own. She had wanted to tell Mrs Powel about her work, even if it wasn’t much these days. The only thing she had started so far was the analysis of the cosmic data she and Darcy had collected during the convergence of the worlds, although that had barely been the minimum, with Jane’s semi-hiatus. Why had she even started telling that stupid story from the station – oh, whatever.

“I cried over a dead fly last week,” Jay said quietly when she climbed out of the car in front of their garden door. Jane had to think hard about what she meant until she noticed that this was still about the chocolate. She couldn’t suppress a chuckle.

“The next time we’re at my mother’s, I will ask her to tell you the story of how Loki threw a tantrum because a cat had left inky paw prints all over his favourite book,” Thor said with a mischievous little smile playing around the corner of his mouth. “It was quite a sight.”

“Really?” It was a little hard to imagine cool, haughty Loki, a thousand years old, as an upset and dishevelled boy. “When did that happen?”

“Last week, I thought it was audible through half the universe,” Thor shrugged.

As they went through the garden, finally cleared of Darcy’s awful reindeer sculptures, quite a bit of activity from the neighbouring house – not the Gupta’s residence, the other one that was still for sale – attracted their attention. Several workmen were taking a break in the garden, and judging from the vans parked in front of the house, they were renovating the place.

“Looks like we’re getting new neighbours,” Jane said. She hoped they didn’t insist on her cleaning up the garden. Anyone around should be grateful for the reindeers being gone.

As of last night, Jane had managed to not let go of Thor for more than thirty seconds whenever they were in the same room, and she wouldn’t start now. She dove under his arm as he stood at the kitchen counter slicing some vegetables, and leaning against him, she started to help. They made a remarkably good team, with Jane and Thor preparing and adding the ingredients for a creamy stew to a wide saucepan, and Jay jumping back and forth producing spice jars, washing tomatoes and setting up the rice cooker. Jane felt better simply by looking at the happy half-dragon.

The fragrance of the stew, a rich masterpiece combining beef, prunes, apples, cinnamon and thyme amongst its most prominent flavours, wafted through the whole house, or at least Jane thought so. She had no other explanation as to how it could wake up Darcy in her room on the upper floor.

“Snack,” an uncharacteristically tousled Darcy mumbled. Jane simply handed over her own untouched bowl of stew, while Thor reached for a clean one from the cupboard. Darcy, still standing in the doorway, shovelled the complete contents of the bowl into her mouth within no more than three minutes. Jane couldn’t help but feel envious: her stomach’s capacity still did not match her increased need for energy from food.

“Puddings?” Jay asked when Darcy turned to lurch back into her room. Without stopping, Darcy stretched out a hand for the custard-filled muffin Jay gave her and vanished upstairs again. One didn’t need a house ghost when a Darcy was around.

Jay excused herself after they had cleaned up together. She had some new music she wanted to listen to, and although she invited Jane and Thor, they both preferred a nap. The kitchen door had just closed behind Jay when Thor, the two of them still standing next to the freshly loaded dishwasher, let himself slump with a sigh, his arms around Jane’s shoulders. She turned around so she could put her arms around him, hold him.

“Thank you,” he mumbled to her shoulder.

“Nothing to thank me for,” she replied.

They hadn’t talked about it, there had been no need. Ever since the beginning of the year, Thor hadn’t slept a whole night through without being woken by nightmares, and the last one had been particularly bad. It didn’t help much that Jane now had a recurring nightmare, too: of a certain day back in the desert, when he had died in her arms. Except in her stupid, stupid dreams, he never woke up again. Fortunately, she did, and usually quickly so.

Either way, while Jane was used to feeling like crap and admitting so, she knew enough about Thor’s people to appreciate beyond measure that he confided in her.

“Are you sure you don’t want to make another appointment with Doctor Kapoor?” she asked quietly.

“I’ll… think about it.”

“Okay.”

She gave him a little longer, although she wondered if his back didn’t hurt from the slouched position he had to take in order to lean on her.

“You know, Mrs Powel is right,” Jane said. “I gotta learn how to recharge when something has stressed me out. But I think –“ She nudged Thor’s nose with her own. “- that you have to learn that, too.”

To her relief, that made him chuckle tiredly. His arms slid down her sides, so he could lift her up to a more comfortable height and place her on the counter. Their faces did not stop touching for a moment.

“And do you have a suggestion as to what we should try first?”

“One?” she purred.

Hours later, Darcy and the cats found them both in the laboratory debating the data Jane’s machines had collected of the wormhole super-event. Although Thor couldn’t contribute any more than the odd calculation and being very good at keeping Jane’s messy notes sorted, Jane managed to determine more conclusions in those hours than she had in the weeks before. Despite the common misbelieve about scientists in relationships, Thor’s presence helped her focus on her work much more than he distracted her, and when she looked at him, he seemed a lot more collected, too.

Jane appreciated that he didn’t try to do any more than assist. It was her work after all, and she took pride in the fact that despite having all the answers to her astrophysical questions sitting right in front of her, she could still find them on her own, the human way. All hers, as he had understood. He’d never take it away from her, not even unknowingly and with the best intentions.

She didn’t notice Darcy standing in the door, watching them work together for God knew how long.

“What?” Jane asked at Meteor’s questioning face as the kitten meowed at her from behind Darcy’s knees.

“Nothing,” Darcy replied. “Except that you’re both hopeless.”

Jane and Thor exchanged a grin. Maybe not entirely hopeless.

* * *

Time had the habit of passing, whether one was ready to admit so or no. It showed in many of its little ways: new things appearing and disappearing in the house (Jane wasn’t quite so sad about the vanishing of the door that had stretched over half a ceiling and an adjacent wall), the cats not growing so much in size, but certainly in mischievous ideas of how to unnerve their staff, the Guptas’ grandchildren visiting (an event to which the cats received an invitation, and behaved brilliantly), the house library receiving some new additions, Thor’s trips to the local library recommencing, Darcy adorning one room after the other with hand-painted, -stitched and -sewn decorations, the neighbouring house looking more and more like a place where people could live, Jay’s visits after her meet-ups with Sam becoming more frequent…

The weather stayed cold for some more weeks, and Jane tried to use the chance of working in her lab as often as possible without losing sight of her new family. It did not just to benefit her sense of normalcy, it also seemed to have a calming effect on Darcy, who slid back into her assisting routines quite easily – after having made clear to Thor that this was _her_ place, and that he could use his endless list of privileges to find a fancy intern position somewhere else, thank you very much.

To Jane’s surprise and appreciation, Thor took Darcy’s concerns very seriously. He slouched down with a laptop in a rarely-used corner of the lab and only leant a hand when they asked him to, which happened once with a box on a particularly high shelf and the longest ruler out of reach, and another time when Darcy didn’t feel like walking back to the kitchen to get the little lever-tool for opening pickle jars. Very scientific lab equipment, pickles. Jane still did whatever she could to include him, and if it was sitting back to back to each other cuddled up in a blanket while they both worked. Jay sometimes joined them, when she was around.

Still, some things had decidedly changed. Lunch- and dinnertime were not just mere suggestions anymore, and the meals were prepared by all of them together, well, with Darcy providing moral support from the corner of the kitchen bench. Jane also loved to accompany Thor outside, where he did his fitness training, during which she used the chance to explore their backyard wilderness as far as she dared – usually limited either by how long she could endure the cold, or when Thor would get worried that she may walk too far into a fairy circle. Lastly and most importantly though, work was no more the only thing on Jane’s mind, her schedule, her every free minute. It was just the largest point on her ever-growing list of things to do in order to keep herself relaxed, and that felt… interesting. Well, she didn’t cry over her pocket calculator spelling a rude word at her anymore, which was definitely good.

At first Jane kept suggesting an after-lunch-nap for of all the lost hours of sleep at night because of nightmares – even Jay did not object. But with Darcy insisting that whenever someone worked at a weekend, a unicorn cried, the long hours of every Saturday and Sunday had to be whiled away in a more slowly manner, and so the midday nap became daily routine. Jane suspected that they were all subconsciously starting to imitate the cats.

It was one of those early afternoons when Jane left her bedroom in search of a bottle of water. Thor was still fast asleep. She tiptoed down the stairs to the upper floor and out into the corridor, about to turn to the big staircase, when –

“Jay!”

The half-dragon blinked at her, so rudely awoken.

“Sweetie,” Jane sighed, “I know I keep calling you ‘kitten’, but that doesn’t mean you’re supposed to sleep in the cats’ basket.”

“… ‘f nicer here,” Jay mumbled, snuggling back into Comet’s fur. The kittens, usually flinching at anyone who so much as tried to pat their backs, couldn’t be bothered.

“Futon”, Jane murmured to herself while she went down the stairs to the kitchen.

She had just fetched a bottle of water from the storage room when she heard a knock at the front door. Curious who it might be, Jane opened.

“Nick!”

By now used to her ways of saying hello, Nick simply laughed as a reply to Jane’s instant hug.

“Nice to see you, too,” he winked. “Your doorbell doesn’t work, I wondered if you’d even hear me.”

“I think it switches off when we’re asleep… but I’ll give you a key. Come inside, you must be freezing.”

Considering the weather, Nick was dressed quite lightly with no more than a thick sweater and a scarf instead of a coat.

“I was just – duck!”

Nick was about to dive for cover and Jane wanted to follow him, slam the door shut, anything – but then she remembered what Mrs Gupta had said about the paparazzi. How they couldn’t see the house.

“Wait here,” she said, putting on her pair of rain boots.

“Jane, what –“

She did not look back at Nick, who stood in the doorway as she went down the garden path to the front porch. A single man waited there, trying not to look too confused as he tried to look at the houses. Jane did not need any supernatural powers to know that he was no journalist or photographer.

“Can I help you?” she asked casually, leaning over the front porch. She hoped that he couldn’t see that she was standing on an old, up-turned bucket.

“Maybe you can,” he said with a concerned if official expression so perfect that it was nothing but fake. “I am –“

“You’re looking for someone.”

He stared at her, understanding dawning on his face. Enough, Jane decided.

The hammer landed comfortably in her hand. Not so difficult after all. The man’s eyes bulged when he recognised the tool.

“I give you two choices,” Jane snarled. “One, you try to continue lying and find out where that gets you. Two, you run back to your pathetic HYDRA friends and tell them that, once and for all, you stand no chance. And that I expect you to have a good, long think about what you should do with your life. It’s never too late for that, even if at your age, I’d have thought you a bit smarter.”

The man kept staring at her hand, over which small flashes of electricity crackled. How annoying.

“Run!” Jane barked. He was down the street before she could bother to climb from her bucket.

Nick looked about ten years older when she went back to him so he could close the front door behind her. For some odd reason Jane was sure never to understand, she felt as if caught coming home later than she’d been allowed.

“Sorry,” she said. “Didn’t want to show off.”

Nick sighed:

“I’m starting to understand how you could strain Phil Coulson’s last nerve.”

“Who was that?” Thor asked from the steps of the main staircase. Nick turned to him as calmly as if they were merely discussing tennis results and said:

“One of HYDRA’s minions, his name is Grant Ward. Jane dealt with him, I’m just here because I wanted to tell you that we’re neighbours now.”

Jane, her face uncomfortably hot, hardly heard his last words.

“Sorry. It’s just… it’s what I wish someone had done when HYDRA’s predecessors tracked down my great-grandparents.” The thought only made sense to her as she spoke it.

Nick nodded, and to Jane’s surprise she could see understanding, and shock, in Thor’s eyes. He had read more about humanity’s history than she had expected.

“Why is Earth so damn cold whenever we go here?” someone behind her muttered. Jane spun around on her heels, as she had not heard the door being unlocked again. It was Sif, who shook snow slush off her cloak and boots. She looked at Jane, and what she still held in her hand, only to roll her eyes:

“I shouldn’t even be surprised, should I?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As Jane is gonna be very busy with her Infinity Gem, the next chapter will be all about Sam.


	30. Chapter 30

“A kitten starter set as a Christmas present for a bird,” Natasha grinned. “Must have been Jane’s idea.”

“A falcon,” Sam corrected her. “Too much for your standard domestic cushion tiger.”

With a face like the aforementioned feline presented with a bowl of cream, Natasha replied:

“Well, maybe the falcon will lay some eggs one day.”

“About as many as a rooster.”

Natasha ignored him and instead started to leaf through a book about taking care of cats. As usual, she had pretended not to hear Steve’s repeated invitation to stay in the guest room last night and had instead reappeared on their doorstep just in time for breakfast. She kept saying that she only did it so Steve put some effort into his cooking.

“Why, do you want a cat?” Sam asked.

“I’m never home anyway.”

Steve, who had listened to the whole conversation from the kitchen, yelled from there:

“Then move in here, for Heaven’s sake!”

He had said that so often that Sam seriously considered to have the sentence printed on a t-shirt for him. It would certainly save Steve quite a bit of shouting.

“You’d buy me a kitten?” Natasha asked back.

“Five kittens, and a goat, if you just stopped that silly meandering!”

It wasn’t as if Natasha wasn’t practically living with them anyway. Sometimes Sam wondered if she even had a home, or simply returned to a suitcase for curling up in at night.

“No goats!” he yelled back at Steve. He couldn’t stand the smell that kept on smelling. Natasha purred:

“Pity, I was just considering the Captain’s offer.”

Nat took off to the bathroom. She liked to have luxurious bubble baths at all times of the day, which had led Sam to believe that she didn’t have a tub in her own home. Maybe he should try that for an argument next time.

Fortunately the flat had two bathrooms. It was a far too spacious place for the two of them, but Sam and Steve didn’t have need to mention to each other that they planned for more. The extra income from the Avengers merchandise line and Pepper’s excellent business contacts had made it possible for them to move here, an old warehouse that had been transformed into chic apartments quite recently. As they had the top floor to themselves, they could also use the storage rooms on the roof. Steve planned to do some gardening up there when spring came.

“It was my turn with the dishes,” Sam said when he walked into the kitchen. Nice and spacious, they hadn’t done much with the old cupboards except for some cleaning and a bit of paint. It had preserved the room’s cosy, lived-in flair. The sink Steve stood in front of was new though.

“You can have them tomorrow,” Steve replied. “You’re gonna be late for your meeting.”

“There’s still time.”

He took the cereal bowl Steve had scrubbed and started to dry it off with a kitchen towel.

“He’s gonna get better,” Sam said quietly.

Steve responded with no more than a quiet sigh. They had been talking about this, a lot, too often actually. James Barnes was still in hospital care, had been for months, and no, he wasn’t getting better. Physically he was fine, had been from the start. Inside though, he was just getting more confused at best, often not knowing where he was and not recognising anyone. When at first he still seemed to find Steve a familiar face, he was doubting that now, too.

“Maybe we should consider renaming the team,” Steve mused.

Sam looked up. Had he heard correctly?

“Who, the Avengers?”

“Yeah. I’ve been thinking, about what Thor said… what he said about what Jane had said. That we should just go out and help people instead of sitting around waiting for bad stuff to happen.”

“I see.”

They had been talking about that, too, although not quite as much as they should have with Tony at the phone, asking if they were in for a pub round with his new car. If it had even been a car… Sam was never quite sure from the looks of Tony’s gadgets.

“Helping is good, but it can be just as hard” was what he had wanted to say back then, and what he still did not have the heart to say out loud. “And Thor agrees with her?” was what he actually said.

Steve gave him a disbelieving look, asking, “Do they ever disagree?”

“No, except in that stupid question who loves the other more,” Sam growled.

“Nah, Sif has said that they just staged that dialogue to annoy her. Which means they do agree on everything.”

“Annoying…”

“Promise me we’ll never become like that, honey,” Steve teased.

“Sure, honey.”

Sam was already in the hallway, putting on his shoes for his meeting with Jay, when Steve shouted from the kitchen:

“What am I supposed to do if Nat comes home with a kitten?”

He straightened up. That wasn’t so unlikely a scenario, was it?

“Return her and keep the kitten, nobody will notice the difference.”

Steve’s head appeared behind the doorframe, his expression flabbergasted.  
“Know what,” he said, “that’s a brilliant idea.”

Sam shrugged. Of course it was.

* * *

February had come, Jay’s least favourite month. It was colder than ever, and everyone felt sick and tired of snow, yet spring, warmth and a new harvest were still far, far away. She shivered where she stood. The day hadn’t been so great to begin with, and the overcast sky, promising deeper temperatures but not any new snow to replace the ugly grey slush on the streets, did not help much to improve her mood.

She had no watch, but she was sure that Sam usually arrived earlier. Her arms slung around her body, muscles cramped, Jay tiptoed from one foot to the other. Neither did it warm her up, nor would it quench her nervousness, but she did not know what else to do. What if Sam did not come? She had no phone to call him, although Darcy kept pushing her own device into Jay’s pockets. Jay did not quite understand telephones, and her clumsy fingers could not make sense of the sensitive surface. She felt so useless, so…

“I’m so sorry,” Sam gasped, jogging up to the parking lot, “I missed the subway and the only taxi I could find was so old, it had tiny dinosaurs sticking to its number plate. I’m pretty sure we got passed by a phone booth on the way, and it wasn’t blue.” Noticing her questioning face, he quickly added: “Never mind, that’s from a TV show.”

“I see,” Jay said, trying hard to smile without her teeth clattering. Sam’s eyes widened in shock:

“Oh God, you must be freezing.”

“It’s okay, we can go now…”

Sam tried a little more small talk on the way, but Jay’s strength was used up. Just when they were in sight of the community building, Sam slowed down his pace and said:

“Are you sure you want to go?”

“What?”

He stopped.

“Are you sure you want to attend the meeting?”

“I… don’t know.”

“Jay. If you don’t feel comfortable, you don’t have to go.”

She couldn’t quite muster the courage to look at him when she asked: “No?”

Sam stepped back a little so they were out of the constant stream of commuters and early-morning shoppers on the sidewalk. Calmly, but loud enough that she could understand him, he said:

“No, you don’t have to do anything you don’t like. If you’re not feeling quite alright, you can go back home, or stay a bit. Have you done any sightseeing yet?”

Jay shook her head. She didn’t want to leave yet, but…

“Can we go somewhere warm?”

“Breakfast, you’re my guest.”

Jay had meant some warm place, no more. She blushed at the thought of Sam inviting her into his home for a meal, but even more so when he hailed a cab to bring them to a small café in a quiet, very pretty part of the city. The epitome of embarrassment was reached when she had to admit that because of the time difference between the worlds, it was close to lunchtime for her.

“It was an all-cereal breakfast this morning again,” Sam said with an almost apologetic face after he had ordered two glasses of hot mulled apple juice, a full breakfast for himself, and plateful of sausages, eggs and bacon for Jay. “Steve’s cooking is simply not edible. He tries though. How are your sausages?”

Caught in the middle of trying to not wolf down the whole plate, literally, Jay just nodded. She was simply no good at this whole mealtime conversation thing – she wasn’t good at conversation at all, full stop. Sam fortunately didn’t seem to mind, for he continued:

“Sorry about this. You really don’t have to keep coming if it makes you uncomfortable. Taking part in a self-help group can be upsetting, and it isn’t for everyone.”

“No, no, it’s not that…” Jay gulped down two cheekfuls of sausage. “Well… not everything.” She took a deep breath, trying to remember what Jane had taught her about how to voice what bothered her. “I haven’t felt so good these days.”

Sam nodded.

“That can happen. Listen to what your guts tell you, and don’t overpower yourself, okay? Healing takes a long time, and there’s always setbacks.”

Jay nodded, looking at the sad remains of her meal. She was still hungry, but this was already more than she usually allowed herself. No matter what Betty had told her about aliens having a super fast metabolism (Was that the word?) and her needs for protein (another difficult word) and fat, Jay could not shake off the guilt of committing gluttony. It would be impolite not to finish though… why was eating out so difficult, and how did humans do it so easily all the time? After about five centuries on Earth, she should be better at adapting.

“I feel so stupid,” she said before she noticed that she hadn’t just thought the words.

“It’s not –“

“No, what I mean is, that’s the thing. Everyone is so smart, and I am not.” Jay slapped a hand in front of her mouth. “Oh no, I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to –“

“Hey.” Sam’s eyes bore into her. “I’m not a therapist and I don’t do mentoring anymore, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t tell me whatever you want, if it makes you feel better. As a friend. I mean – not that I – as a friend like –“

“As a friend would be nice,” Jay said, flustered by Sam’s flustering. She looked back at her plate, shoving the last bite of scrambled eggs into her mouth before saying: “Everybody is so smart. Everybody can do something. I can’t even stay on my own.”

“You’ve been staying on your own and managing for ages, Jay,” Sam said. She didn’t quite know what to say to that, so she tried to explain:

“I don’t have a job, and I have no idea how such things work anymore, it’s not like one or two hundred years ago…”

“Jay, for the last time –“ Sam pushed his plate aside so he could lean on his elbows. “- I am not a mentor anymore, but I can still tell you how healing works, because it’s pretty similar for everyone. Probably even aliens.” He looked a tad unsettled, but quickly found his thread of thought again with: “What I can tell you is that you shouldn’t come to the step of what you want to do before you haven’t finished the base work of knowing where you stand, and be steadfast there. Take your time.”

“Okay.” Jay tried not to blush with embarrassment. She couldn’t even heal properly.

“Why did you get this idea anyway?” Sam asked. “You didn’t seem to mind last week.”

“We were doing a jigsaw.”

It had been Darcy’s idea. Sif was adamant on finally returning Jane’s Infinity Gem, and that meant she would stay with Jane in her house until they could be sure that Jane could deal with the thing. Darcy had insisted that she needed more video games for that time, which had led them to a department store where some jigsaw puzzles attracted Jane’s attention. Once at home, Jane and Darcy had been so quick to assemble the thing, arguing with each other about whether the edges should be solved first or not, mixed with shouted instructions at Jay that were confusing at best and contradictory at its worst, she had fled into her room.

Sam laughed when she told him the story.

“So that’s why all those tabloids rumoured that Jane was pregnant. Those paparazzi saw you in the toys aisle. I sometimes read those at the hairdresser’s,” Sam added quickly. More seriously, he continued:

“Jay, nobody can do a jigsaw from the beginning. Humans learn that all their life, with very easy toy jigsaws at first, and even so a lot of us can’t do complicated puzzles. You just happen to live with some of the smartest people on the planet.”

“But Jane –“

“Jane couldn’t learn a language in some weeks, but you could. Darcy told me.”

Her hands flailing as if that could help her grasp the words she was looking for, Jay stammered, “But, but that’s still slow for my people. I’m so slow, and I think it’s because of what Betty said, how I didn’t grow properly because I lacked food. I think my brain is too small.”

She expected Sam to deny this vehemently, just like everyone else – but he didn’t. He just looked at her very seriously, finally saying:

“If that worries you, you could have Doctor Cho take a look –“

“I don’t like doctors.”

Sam nodded, still not losing his temper.

“I know, but Helen is really nice. She’s taking care of all of us when we get a scratch or a bruise, and she’s really good. Like Betty, really. Betty is great, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“It’s just that,” Sam continued, “you’d know for sure then. I don’t know much about these things, but you could also simply have a learning deficit, or maybe it’s because you’re just not used to studying. But either way, it’s nothing you have to be ashamed of. You can take courage in who you are. There’s tons of things you’re really good at, I’m sure. Nobody here could live in the woods for centuries like you can.”

“Like a savage animal,” she mumbled.

“And all the things you can do because you’re a dragon –“ Jay started, but Sam kept her in her place simply by lifting his hand. “- are amazing. I know you don’t like being reminded of your nature, but it is part of you, and as such, it’s not evil. It can’t be, because you’re good. You’ve decided to be good, and so is the dragon in you.”

“You don’t know what happens when I sneeze.”

Sam laughed, and Jay wanted to be angry at him, but she couldn’t. All of a sudden, his expression calmed, became unreadable. Leant back in his seat, he asked:

“Can you fly?”

Jay swallowed hard.

“I think… I did once.”

“I’ve always dreamt of being able to fly,” he mused.

Relieved that the topic had shifted a little, Jay asked, “I thought you had a machine that does the flying for you.”

“Yeah, but I want to be able to fly on my own,” Sam replied with a light smile playing around his lips.

“Have you asked your doctor?” Jay said with a completely serious face. He laughed.

The café was almost empty at this time of the day, and the miracle of snow had happened again. Wrapped in her many layers of clothing, snuggled into a thick, fluffy shawl Darcy had knitted for her, Jay allowed herself the luxury of looking at the cold winter world through the window next to which she sat, as well as the delight of enjoying its beauty.

At some point during those hours they sat there, quietly sipping spicy hot chocolate or pleasantly talking about cats and TV shows and the aerodynamics of her dragon kingdom, Jay realised that she liked this. Maybe humans had a point with their cafés after all.

“Why don’t you mentor anymore?” she asked on a whim when they were halfway through their second cup of chocolate. She had managed to ask for extra chilli powder this time.

Sam stirred his cup, his face solemn.

“I keep mentioning that, don’t I?” he asked. Jay waited. After a while, looking out of the window, Sam said:

“I started all this work after I lost my partner, Riley. For some time, it worked for me. I could do something good, I could help people. I just worked too much, and too early. I couldn’t keep up the distance a good counsellor needs, because I wasn’t over my own stuff, so…”

“And now I keep reminding you,” Jay mumbled into her cup.

“No.” Sam startled her by sitting up very straight. “No, Jay. I’m in that self-help group as a member myself, remember? I just offered to take you along as a friend, because maybe it helps us both. That’s a completely different thing. I’d actually ask you to stop me in case I ever tried to be a therapist for you, because I’m not, and I shouldn’t. If you want to talk to someone, Barbara is a very good counsellor.”

Jay tried a little smile. “Okay.” And he smiled back.

He walked her back to the parking space, it wasn’t that far after all. To her surprise, Jay felt warm the whole time, an effect she ascribed to the chilli. She would have to keep that in mind.

“Next week again?” Sam asked when they had arrived. It sounded almost shy. Jay nodded fervently.

“Yeah, I’ll try not to slouch again. Be more courageous.”

Had she been, she’d have asked Sam to meet her earlier. Well, one step after the other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 30 chapters already? It's official, this is gonna be endless.
> 
> Next chapter will return to the House of Wormholes, with a number of guests.


	31. Chapter 31

Jane paced restlessly back and forth through the kitchen, like a hamster bereft of a hamster wheel. Darcy’s comparison.

“Can’t you at least invite Loki?” Jane whined.

Thor replied, “If you’re bored, you will have to invite him yourself.”

“Stand in front of a mirror and say his name three times,” was Darcy’s suggestion. “What? It’s worth a try.”

Typical. Once she wasn’t allowed to go out, Jane felt the urge to do nothing that required a roof over her head. She knew that it wasn’t a good idea with the Infinity Gem in her possession for good, but that didn’t mean the pouting scientist in her agreed. The weather – sunny end of winter, spring in the air – didn’t help much, and neither did the fact that there was someone with her wherever she went. There were only so many walks she could go for on her own in their extended backyard.

Sif said, “You are doing well so far. If this continues, we can all return to our own matters soon enough.”

“How can you tell?” Jane asked.

“Because you didn’t turn the world into raspberry jelly when you ran out of your favourite tea,” Darcy said. “Great. Now I want raspberry jelly.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Thor sighed, trotting over to rummage through the kitchen cupboards. Jane hadn’t asked, but she could sense that he was just as bored as she was. Even one of Darcy’s awful romantic date ideas felt like fun now.

“I’ll take my leave then,” Nick said. “Not so keen on seeing Loki, sorry, Jane.”

“Please stay. I just need someone to rant at without feeling too bad about it later,” she growled. Well, not _that_ bad, anyway.

“Shall I call Beatrice for you?” Nick offered with a glint in his eyes.

“Oh yeah, that’s a good idea. Can’t test the Gem any better.”

Jane wouldn’t have minded at all if she could have stayed alone with Thor. But Sif had to be along in case something went wrong with the Gem, and Sif refused to stay on her own with the lovebirds. As Gamora and Jay had volunteered to help Betty, thus keeping themselves as far away from the Infinity Gems as possible, the only person left to make sure Sif didn’t end up plotting mischief with the cats was Darcy. Sif had even suggested to send Thor away, together with the cats, but that had earned her a feline growl from all three, plus an explanation from Jane that it would be easier to coax a horse into tap dancing.

“So… what do we do?” Jane asked.

“Well, I’d have said TV,” Darcy said, “but we all know how that ended.” Mostly in a lot of fidgeting, as did all activities that required sitting still. “You’ve already covered the cooking and baking for the next two weeks, the cats have a new cat tree, the laundry is done and you had the great idea to use your new alien blinge stone for scrubbing every surface in the house spotless, so…”

“I didn’t use the Gem for cleaning,” Jane interrupted.

“Jane, you did it in less than a day.”

“Yeah, and I made absolutely sure the Gem had nothing to do with it.”

Nick and Sif exchanged a gaze. Sif asked:

“You can steer it?”

“This Gem influences reality, reality is physics, and that happens to be what I’ve done most of my life,” Jane sighed, smoothing back her hair. She felt restless, unnerved, locked up in a place that should be big enough for five times as many people. “I haven’t used the Gem, but it’s changing me. My body. My fatigue is gone.”

It was strange, after all these months… years, even. She had not remembered how good it felt to be mistress of her own strength again.

Two strong arms wound around her midst, causing Jane to jump, but she let him. He went through so much for her. “Would you mind a nap, anyway?” Thor asked.

It was an odd time for a nap, in the middle of the afternoon, but Jane had decided as of yesterday that for the next weeks, she’d do whatever Thor suggested so long as it made him happy. Dealing with an Infinity-Gem-ridden fiancée was surely about as comfortable as cuddling with a cactus, yet he dealt with her so sweetly. She owed him.

“Sure, why not?”

They left the kitchen together and went upstairs, but just when Jane wanted to turn into the narrow hallway that led to their bedroom, Thor tenderly pulled her further along, lifting his index finger to his lips. Grinning, Jane followed.

Nothing had changed since they had been in the alien world the last time. It was terribly cold, but somehow Jane did not mind so much anymore. Must be the Gem. The oddly coloured snow stretched around them on all sides, and there were the hills where they had found the circle of stones.

“How are you feeling?” Thor asked quietly. He had lost the easy demeanour he had carried around the others all day.

“Good, really. I didn’t think it would be so easy, but I guess time will show if it stays so. Why?”

“Because… your ears are becoming pointy.”

Jane grinned.

“I know, I’m turning a bit Darkelf. I’m getting a tan, too. And not just a bit. Get used to it.”

“It’s cute,” Thor chuckled. “But – not those white eyes?”

“Nah.”

He sighed in relief, drawing her close with one arm and cupping her face with the hand of the other. “Fate be thanked. I love your beautiful, beautiful eyes.”

“I know,” Jane grinned back, blushing a little. “A blend of sweet melted chocolate and the deepest amber,” he had told her once. The nicest thing anyone had ever said about her eyes. Usually it was just a “they’re kinda brown, I think”. And here was why she was engaged to an alien.

“Hey, look at this,” Jane whispered. It was so eerily quiet here, her voice was perfectly audible without the usual shouting she had to do. She took Thor’s hand, and together they watched a small red cloud form over their joined palms, sparkling with tiny flashes of lightning.

“And you said you can’t do magic,” she teased before reaching up and drawing him into a kiss. They hadn’t taken their time to kiss each other for days.

“Maybe I should start practising again,” he winked when they stood hugging each other.

“You just do that for your mum’s face when you tell her that you’re into books and magic now.”

“Of course,” Thor grinned. “Now… weren’t you bored, just about ten minutes ago?”

“I was bored until five minutes ago, if you want to know.”

Still they set off for the hills, walking slowly hand in hand. To her own surprise, Jane enjoyed the gesture: both their hands warm in the cold air, sharing the glint in their eyes whenever they looked at each other.

“Shh, wait,” she said as quietly as possible. They had slowed down in a shallow valley between a lazy group of the pale pink rocks, close to the lake, which they had seen on their first visit. Her words were not necessary, for Thor had heard it, too. Only a short time later, five, no, six of the creatures they had seen from afar on their first visit trotted into the long, broad slope that grazed the valley.

They seemed to never have seen humanoids, or at least they did not show any fear. Quite on the contrary, they trotted up quickly to see what waited for them.

Jane had to suppress her fear, for wow, the creatures _were_ big. The smallest, probably a calf, still stood as tall as a horse, while the biggest would have made a house feel nervous. They sniffed at their two visitors from another world, with large midnight-blue nostrils, their breath warm, but not humid. The creatures even carefully nudged them, as if they were used to the fragility of smaller beings.

Thor, as usual, saw the gigantic animals as a fluffy challenge. Before Jane could stop him, he had started a game of nudge-and-dodge with a middle-sized specimen, and while Jane was distracted, one of the calves came to the decision of imitating that game with her – of course without explaining the rules first. Jane found herself running around a rock, chased by the not quite insignificant horns of the animal, only to bump into her chaser once in a while and thus turning the direction of running. She’d have continued the routine for the rest of her life, hadn’t a safe hand tucked her out of the furrow she had run into the snow and hoisted her up.

She found herself sitting on a very fluffy back, swinging back and forth in the odd tact of six strong legs. Thor sat behind her, one arm around her middle so she couldn’t fall off.

“Did you ask?” she snarled at him.

“Sure,” he grinned back.

They returned… quite a while later. After some more exploring. And a break. Or two. Breaks, definitely, although they both tried to make sure the other’s hair was in somehow presentable shape before they climbed through the door into the house. There were some things better left to Darcy’s imagination, or else she’d get bored.

Speaking of imagination, Jane did not quite trust her sense of reality when they returned to the main salon – there had been a detour, as a room down the corridor had developed bay windows – _bay windows_ – and looked at the scene presenting itself there:

Darcy sat on the floor in front of the television, her back to everyone, playing some video game that consisted of a tiny yellow dot jumping over other colourful dots. Sif posed stiffly on one of the two big armchairs in front of the fireplace, very openly lady of the scene and not particularly amused about the weather, the lack of tea, and the world in general. And opposite her… sat Loki.

“Hey, Loki,” Jane said as if it was completely normal that he just appeared in her salon at any given time. “Got bored?”

“Somehow.”

“Cool.”

Darcy turned around to them.

“I told you, all you need to do is say his name in front of a mirror three times.”

In this very moment, Nick walked back in from the hallway, a visitor in tow.

“Lady Beatrice, may I introduce to you the king of the nebula?”

* * *

With pronounced composure, Thor placed the tea cups in the dishwasher, indicating where Loki was supposed to put his own mug. Loki made a halfway acceptable try, but obviously had not understood the concept. Thor wished his brother would at least pretend to adjust to human culture, it was not that difficult, and after all, he was king now. Not that he would remind Loki of this fact. If there was one thing they did not need after this afternoon, it was more of Loki’s ego games, as Darcy called it.

Loki had done well impressing Beatrice, that was for sure. Showing up in perfectly spotless formal attire, human, but no less out of place, certainly had to do with it. Loki had proven time and again that he knew how to dress when on Earth, even if it was just one of his glimmer spells, but he had simply never been master of his vanity. Thor was very tempted to tell his brother how silly he looked, loading a dishwasher in a perfect suit and tie, but he could resist. This was not the place or time.

While they had had tea, Loki had made polite conversation with the new guest, even if it had just been meant to annoy Nick. This had resulted in everyone else, especially Darcy, throwing little pokes into the conversation which Beatrice wouldn’t understand, but Loki all the more. He did very well hiding his wrath, but Thor had learned to look a little better for hints of his brother’s actual emotions – even if this talent was not very old. He had hence suggested Loki to help him clear away the cups and dishes. Not the fancy teacups Beatrice had given them, as Jane had made sure.

As the dishwasher took up its work, Thor made sure that the kitchen door was closed before he placed two glasses on the table as well as a bottle of beer Sif had left. Loki had always preferred glasses over mugs, so he would not mind this human fashion.

The glasses clanged and they took their first draught in silence, as they always had. It should not have been so painful, nor so fresh, this gesture they had shared so many times. Maybe it was out of place, but oddly, it felt perfectly alright.

“That boring, hm?” Thor said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Loki replied in a way that implied the very opposite. Maybe not so skilled a liar after all. “I thought I had been invited to this house.”

Thor scoffed, “By Darcy? I thought you were capable of recognising sarcasm, brother.”

“You speak of irony. Learn the difference, _brother_.”

“She must have been even more bored than I thought,” Thor said. Loki stared at him with a less-than-amused face. For a while, neither of them spoke.

“You will have to tell me,” Thor said. Even his patience had limits, and he had stretched it for Loki more than double during the last years.

“Tell you what? And I don’t have to tell you anything.”

Once again, Loki knew very well what his brother was trying to say, and he did not even try to hide it.

“Why are you here?”

“Maybe I was bored.”

“Maybe more than you tell me,” Thor said. It was difficult to keep the harshness out of his voice that rose in his throat whenever someone so much as mentioned Loki’s name. Funnily though, even he felt bored by the feeling. It was high time for some progress.

“Tell you _what_?” Loki asked again, and this time he honestly did not seem to know.

“How lonely you are.”

Lonely enough to run to the people Loki had hurt most, betrayed worst, and shown at every possible occasion how little he thought of them. That was enough for Thor to know, but he had to make certain Loki would finally understand this himself – and have the courage to admit it.

Of course he did not.

They sat there for a while, or at least until the silence got on Thor’s nerves. His house, his patience. If Loki needed time and space to think, he could have that at the kitchen table, but if he wanted company, he’d have to say so.

Or, well, run after it, as it seemed. Thor had just got onto his feet to place their glasses in the sink when Loki was already by his side. It was an old reflex, no more. They had always been this inseparable, or at least it had felt this way. Thor had spent enough nightly hours pondering how much he did not know about his brother.

For a moment Loki seemed distracted by the deeply snowy landscape beyond the window, not at all resembling the grey pre-spring world outside the front door. Maybe he saw something there only he could see, maybe he did not. After a moment he said:

“It could be that… some things are different now. Some things change… other things.”

Trying not to jump at his brother immediately, Thor said with forced calmness:

“Such as?”

To his surprise, the answer did not seem to come easily to Loki. He leaned heavily on the edge of the kitchen cupboard in front of the window, looking for the words he wanted to use.

“Such as… dying.”

For a moment Thor found himself utterly flabbergasted. Loki had never – not actually. Or had he?

“The ruse you played with the Kurse? I thought that was just a spell, one of Mother’s glimmers.”

Loki scoffed humourlessly, “And I thought falling into a vortex was unpleasant.”

If the spell was not just a ruse though, that meant their mother –

“It is not an experience I want to repeat – and survive,” Loki interrupted Thor’s thoughts, his shaking voice betraying the wit in his words. Thor said coolly:

“Neither do I.”

It took Loki almost a full second to understand those words. His head jolted up, eyes wide, before he immediately withdrew into himself again, shutting those many, many thick gates behind him that had always separated them. Except this time, they did not keep Loki’s whole frame from shivering, no matter how tightly he crossed his arms in front of his chest, holding on to himself.

Had they ever spoken about this? The day Loki sent the guardian of the vault to Earth, after him? Without Jane, he would never have seen the next sunset.

He _wanted_ to speak about this, _now_. He had to. They had to. Because Loki had been right about one thing, and that was that dying was not something that left you unscratched, if you survived.

Loki did not look at him. He was stuck in his fear, his eyes wide and burning with tears, his body no longer shaking but rigid as wood. Thor sighed. King maybe, but still his little brother.

“Would you just apologise, so we can get over this?” he bellowed. Loki started like a rabbit encountering a very rude Chihuahua. Thor had learnt quite well to keep away from Chihuahuas.

Although it brought back the shaking, the fright seemed to unlock Loki’s rigour. He did not speak, and instead straightened up a little to give a wobbly but definite nod. Still his little brother. Always his little brother.

Calmly he grasped for Loki’s arm and pulled him into a hug. Months of training with someone as squirmy as Jane paid off now, although Thor would have wished that he could have come to this conclusion with his fiancée – fiancée, that was how Jane called herself. His betrothed. His fiancée. Funny, how even the words in his head had changed.

Loki had clearly continued his own training, although the strength with which his embrace squeezed Thor’s ribs certainly stemmed from his despair as well. He was now crying fully against Thor’s shoulder, reminding the latter of the laundry that was still up for drying on the so-far unused attic above the guest rooms.

There was no need to say anything, he hoped. To quote Jane again, he was not good at these things. But he hoped that maybe this time, one of the walls around Loki’s heart, one of the barriers between them, would stay open for him. That one day, they could be brothers again. They had been once, Thor was sure of that, and he missed his brother. Had missed him for so much longer than the day his own coronation ceremony had ended in a journey into a life different from everything he had ever imagined.

“Nobody will know of this,” Loki said as he dried his eyes with the help of some magic.

“My beloved will,” Thor smirked.

Loki sighed angrily. “You don’t deserve a wife like her.”

“I know,” Thor replied, the grin on his face widening. Yes, he knew. And it made him happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the awful cheesiness at the end of this chapter. There's only so many jokes one can come up with about laundry.


	32. Chapter 32

There were things Jane would never understand. One of them was how many miracles occurred once her mother was around, namely: the miracle that Beatrice didn’t just stay at her daughter’s for a full week, but that she did not drive Jane mad either. Not as much as usual. Actually… things could have been much, much worse. Was she really that bored?

Apparently she wasn’t the only one, for Loki kept returning every so often for tea. Just like his brother, he seemed to be quite fond of coffee, or at least that was the only reason Jane could imagine as to why he showed up on their doorstep twice or thrice per week, ringing the doorbell and waiting politely for being shown inside. It couldn’t be the constant prattling with Darcy:

“You can’t have the duchess of the reptiles of Nix’s third moon sit next to the Honourable Zorg III at the banquet!” Darcy yelled one afternoon, trying very hard to be on Loki’s height of eyes and failing just as gloriously.

“Why, they will get on splendidly.”

“Exactly! They’ll have eggs together before dessert!”

To Jane’s mild surprise, Beatrice came to help Darcy. She may have no idea about alien planets and their inhabitants, but if she had a talent, then it was organising banquets, even if those were intended for reptiles.

When Loki skipped an afternoon, Nick sometimes used the chance to invite everyone over for tea in his own abode. He had truly outdone himself with his house. Not just that the garden made Jane’s look comfortably embarrassed, the house itself was freshly redone deep into every pore. Every room reflected Nick’s unmistakable style, a mix of antiquities, modern design and timeless elegance that didn’t overwhelm the old, modest building. It did not represent Jane’s idea of cosiness, but she could imagine Nick relax in his salon in the evening with a serious book, an expensive brandy and one of those ridiculously posh dressing robes.

Obviously, the tea he served was as exquisite as the porcelain in which it came, and Jane made sure to ask for the brand – of the coffee as well, she quickly remembered with a look at her sweetheart’s delighted face when allowed to sniff the coffee tin.

Whenever Nick declined their invitation for dinner, Jane insisted. He would say that he wasn’t available. Jane would pout, trying to produce some tears. This tended to go back and forward until Nick finally agreed.

His hesitation hardly had to do with Thor’s cooking skills, for those only improved, if that was even possible. Several times a day, if one ignored the many snacks, he managed to bring a number of courses to the table that were perfectly adjusted to the needs of several different alien species as well as humans, not to mention the many different likings of the originals assembled and Sif’s increasingly bad temper. She called Gamora every night and sparred with Thor every morning, but in between, Jane made sure either to be very, very nice to her, or to be out of the way. This was easiest in the lab, and she couldn’t deny that the work with her new team was great, but everyone agreed that they owed Sif a very quick reunion with her beloved – especially when she started aiming practice with cutlery.

It wasn’t as if Jane’s nerves didn’t suffer from the necessity of staying indoors as much as possible though, as she found herself snapping at every person unlucky enough to be or be not present when she was a tad hungry, the television had the nerve to be turned on, or it was a Tuesday. There was little doubt: as the Infinity Gem hadn’t caused any problems at all yet, they should end this nerve-tearing stunt before it actually did.

Another early Monday evening, Jane posed the question to Sif. Beatrice had been over for the weekend and Jane hadn’t turned the living room furniture into liquorice, which made a wonderful reason as to why she was clearly ready to take care of herself.

Sif glowered at her until Jane felt that a bruise was about to form on her forehead. Then she turned on her heels, flipped a communicator out of her pocket and had called Gamora before she was at the end of the corridor. Jane breathed a sigh of relief. Finally.

“Have you seen –“ Darcy asked as she stuck her head out of the living room door when Sif rushed back, passed her, and threw open the hallway door. Following, Jane and Darcy saw their friend run into the garden and fly into Gamora’s arms, where they shared a passionate kiss. A moment later, the spaceship’s ramp had closed behind them and the whole vehicle had taken off into the sky. Jane waved at Mrs Gupta, who was leaning out of her kitchen window with a broad smile on her face.

“Young love,” she sighed into the quiet, windless gloom of February dusk. Above them, the lights of the spaceship had turned into tiny stars, moving quickly in the otherwise apparently motionless sky. Jane knew better than to fall into this belief, and as always, the thought of all that motion made her dizzy. She was all the more grateful when two strong arms closed around her.

“Beautiful,” Thor said to Mrs Gupta. She waved back at him, her smile a warm light in the shadows of the gardens.

“Have a good night, little lovebirds!” she wished them as she set about to close her windows against the cold of the night. Darcy had already returned into the house, and after waving a goodnight at Mrs Gupta, Jane and Thor went inside, too.

They found Darcy in the kitchen with a cup of reheated soup. She looked a little lost there in her corner of the bench, clinging to the mug of tomato soup as if it was a constant in space – as if anyone could say it wasn’t, but that was a different matter. Jane looked out of the window, where a magnificent sunset was settling over the mountains. Time passed a little differently in this kitchen.

Everything in Jane screamed for a walk into that sunset, their wild backyard, the remainders of snow dyed in pastels by the retreating light and the woods beyond. There was a bit of wall in the corner next to the shorter end of the kitchen bench that was about to become a door soon, Jane was sure of that – a real door this time, starting properly from the floor upwards. Looking back at Darcy, she bit her lip and poured herself a cup of tea instead.

“Nice weather, huh?” Small talk was really, really not her forte.

“It’s not raining aliens, for a start,” Darcy replied.

“Maybe we could – ah, sorry.”

Jane’s phone was ringing. She fumbled it out of her pocket, a remainder of Sif’s rule to call her whenever something happened and she wasn’t in the room.

“You’d better get that,” Darcy said as she glanced on the display, where Beatrice’s name had appeared. “She’s gonna keep calling every fifteen minutes.”

That was not an exaggeration. Beatrice had the reliability of a clock in these things, something Jane seemed to have inherited from her, considering how often she had called the hospital to find out about the woman she and Thor had found in the snow. They had never given her an answer.

“Hello, Mother.”

“Jane, my Darling, how do you do?”

“Yeah, uhm, fine.”

An awkward pause in which Jane tried to remember what she was supposed to say, but hadn’t.

“Why are you calling me?” And one of those things she wasn’t supposed to say.

“Darling, I thought, with your… as you are now, don’t you think it a good idea to release a press statement? An interview would be better of course, I could arrange something with Mr Smith from the –“

“Thanks, but – no.”

Jane could be forgetful, but certainly not when it came to being carried out of a broomstick cupboard by Darcy.

“Are you sure? I thought that you are not feeling quite so – so – that this outerworldly entity makes you stronger in –“

She inhaled deeply, a sound that made Beatrice fall silent, although Jane did not notice. Thor had come into the kitchen, questioningly raising his eyebrows. Jane quickly showed him the name on her phone’s display.

“Mother, I’m not going to use an Infinity Gem to change anything about how I tick. Even if it wasn’t the most reckless thing to do ever, even if there was a good chance that I’d be… I don’t know, normal or whatever it’s called.”

Beatrice paused for a moment, then she said:

“Are you sure?”

“ _Yes_ , Mother,” Jane snarled through her teeth. “And I’ve asked Doctor Kapoor for an appointment for an official test. I wanna know for sure I have autism, and if I do, I don’t mind telling the journalists.”

She felt Thor exhale behind her, his arms once more closing around her mid, her back pressed against him, and the weight of his chin on her head. Whatever that meant, she chose to ignore it for a moment.

“That is very brave,” Beatrice said. Jane blinked. “But – you are really sure? I am sure it could be easier for you if you could… if you could deal better with, uhm, life?”

It was hard not to become very, very angry again. However, after all the time they had spent together during the last weeks, a time during which Jane had been even snappier than usual while Beatrice had shown a disproportionate amount of amicability, she tried to explain rather than melt the phone in a splash of alien magic. For which there was a perfectly scientific explanation of course.

“There’s no guarantee that I will be better at anything after that, and I don’t think I need to. I don’t want to change who I am. I’m a mix of your and Dad’s DNA, and that’s fine with me. That’s perfect enough for me.”

Beatrice needed a moment to process that, and when she replied, Jane was almost sure to hear a little crack in her voice:

“Well, you will know what is best for you. But if you need anything – if you’d like any advice, do call me, will you?”

“Uhm… sure.”

Even after the call had ended, Jane stared at her phone. She was still pondering what Beatrice’s words meant when she remembered Thor, or rather, his very strong embrace that made her ribs creak. Quickly she turned around to look at his face – only to see a smile there, happy, relieved, maybe.

“I’m sorry, I should have told you –“

He leant down to embrace her fully, ear to ear, his chin on her shoulder. Jane quickly slung her arms around his shoulders, snuggling against his neck, into his hair.

All of a sudden, it broke out of her:

“I’ve changed so much already, this Infinity Gem is changing me so much, I don’t want to change any more. Not inside.” She swallowed down a sob. “And I’d like to make an appointment with Doctor Cho, and the healers, if that’s possible. Make sure everything’s okay.”

“Thank you,” he whispered hoarsely. Jane checked if her hug was comfortable for him. She wasn’t quite used to her newly found strength yet, and ever so grateful for not being the only one who disliked changes.

“I – I need to – go somewhere,” Darcy stuttered with a lot of blinking, squirming out from behind the kitchen table and pretending very hard there was something in her eye. Jane let go of Thor, but instead of stepping aside, caught hold of Darcy and pulled her into an embrace, too. Darcy just-so managed to stifle a sob as she returned the hug. Only when they both awkwardly stood in front of each other did Jane say:

“Oh God, was that appropriate? It wasn’t, was it?”

“Yes – no – yes,” Darcy replied, a lot more settled, but still trying to find her poise. Thor snatched Jane’s phone out of her pocket, no doubt in order to save Doctor Cho’s number. He had a photographic memory and could recite the numbers in his phone without ever considering the address book. That was why he had mispronounced “Hubble telescope”, back when they had met for the first time: he read every new word phonetically from the picture of writing he had memorised.

Jane quickly looked around the kitchen, looking very hard for something to do, and jumped over to the fridge in order to prepare some hot chocolate for all of them. She had tried to memorise Mrs Powel’s recipe.

While milk and cream were heating on the stove, Jane sieved powdered cocoa into three cups: a lot of cocoa for her and Thor, not so much for Darcy. No sugar for Thor, a generous spoonful for Jane, and Darcy got the whole sugar bowl placed in front of her. In a small bowl, Jane mixed cinnamon with a little more cocoa powder and grinded some nutmeg, too.

“Your mom seems to unfreeze,” Darcy said, eating a sugar cube. Yes, she hid those in the sugar bowl.

“Really?” Jane asked, mixing the hot milk and cream with the cocoa powder and sugar. It was an honest question. “Do you think it’s because she’s staying here so often?”

“I don’t think that’s why she’s staying,” Darcy said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. Thor chuckled.

“What?”

Jane powdered the cups with the mix of spices.

“Come on. You know she and Nick have this romance thing going on. They’re doing it all the classic way, telling nobody until it’s all about wedding bells and adopting an embarrassing dog together.”

“They’ll adopt a _dog_?” Jane screeched, almost spilling the hot chocolate as she carried the mugs over to the table. Darcy jumped up to save her precious drink.

“Not to replace you – nobody could do that,” Darcy said dryly. Jane bit the inside of her cheek. She had never been able to understand the idiom of “adopting” an animal. As if they shared Jane’s fears, the kittens stuck their heads through the opening of the kitchen door, meowing to remind their humanoids that it was high time for their dinner. Jane gave them a small piece of banana each (they had checked with the breeder beforehand, bananas were okay for the kittens) and slurped up the rest of the fruit without noticing.

“What would you think about arranging a meeting between our mothers?” Thor asked, obviously trying to distract her from her distress – with another topic of distress. “It would be a shame if they met for the first time at our wedding.”

Jane rolled her eyes. Beatrice kept talking about the wedding every five minutes, while Jane did not see why they couldn’t take their time. It was still _years_ until they’d marry.

“Make sure the discussions about who has the best geraniums are done with beforehand? Smart.”

There was a grin playing around Thor’s lips, but also a glint in his eyes that announced he’d tickle her for this later. “My mother has not seen the house yet. It would make for a good occasion.”

“True…” Jane’s heart jumped up her throat when a terrible thought hit her. “She’s not – she doesn’t – you’re sure she wants to come?”

Now it was Thor’s turn to roll his eyes.

“If it were to her, she would have wed us the moment I told her that we were betrothed, and the only reason I can imagine as to why she has not announced a visit is Loki’s coronation.”

“I can do the Loki-sitting when your Mom visits,” Darcy shrugged. “I miss those spas.”

Jane asked, “You would?” Darcy was doing so much for them, for everyone, all the time. She wanted to do something for Darcy for a change. If only she knew what made Darcy happy, really happy, not just shopping-happy… they went shopping often enough together, and even Jane could see that this wasn’t the sort of happiness Darcy wanted.

“Sure,” Darcy shrugged. “I’ve messed up my whole sleeping rhythm these past weeks for you, I don’t mind getting that out of my system.” Darcy was referring to the change in time zones whenever they travelled through space. “Sleeping. At _night_.” She shuddered.

“Speaking of which…” Thor shifted closer on the kitchen bench, so he could put his arms around Jane. His mug of chocolate was already empty. “How about we go to bed early tonight?”

“You two _always_ go to bed early,” Darcy snarled. “Like an old couple. And you get up pretty late. Which is… probably not so much like an old couple, come to think of it.”

Thor ignored Darcy. “So we could have that date early tomorrow morning.”

“Oh… _that_ date.” Jane tried not to look too disappointed, but it wasn’t a discipline she had ever seen worth pursuing. “Sure. If that’s… something you do in the morning?” Maybe she wouldn’t have to wear an evening dress then.

“I promise that you can wear comfortable clothes.”

Now that was creepy. Jane quickly checked if she had used any subtle telepathic skills she had not known of so far, but she couldn’t sense anything. Maybe they were indeed becoming an old couple… the thought was great.

“Okay.”

“Great!” Thor beamed. He was up on his feet in an instant and already halfway through the stocks in their refrigerator before Jane understood that he was merely preparing dinner. “What do you think of curry?” he asked, his hands already full of ingredients of what the cats were about to get. They had a very strict diet plan, still being so little and all.

Darcy took the burden of replying: “Only the best.”

Not quite sure how she felt, Jane withdrew into her lab. She would still have preferred a good long run outside, but firstly it was dark, and secondly she’d never have admitted to Darcy that she’d rather do sports than continue her work. Okay, that was too much to say. She felt the need to move, but compared to pretty much everything… almost everything… most things… she stomped into her lab, threw the door shut behind her and dived into the formula she had brooded over for the past three days before any other nosy thoughts could upset her. Another thing she wouldn’t have told Darcy, or anyone really, was that sometimes, where her research was concerned, Jane missed the desert. She had the notion that her life would never be as quiet as in that place again. She could almost hear Darcy squeak _“Quiet?”_.

Only a moment later, from what Jane could tell, there was a knock at the door and Thor entered in a cloud of most mouth-watering curry scents. He sat down behind her on the floor where she was typing away on her laptop, and leant against her shoulders.

“Ten minutes,” she said.

“Five. You can’t make it too easy for Darcy to have cleaned everything up before we’re there.”

“Mm-hm.”

He put his arms around her midst and snuggled up against her back, giving no sign of leaving her in peace. She enjoyed his touch, but…

“That’s not distracting at all,” Jane snarled over her shoulder. With the grin of a veritable Cheshire Cat, Thor replied:

“I know.”

She remembered faintly having him seen reading “Alice in Wonderland” as of the past week. Note to self: talk to Darcy and the librarian about Thor’s reading list.

There was no use in trying to finish the way she had wanted to, so Jane wrote down some notes that would help her continue the next day and shut down the computer. A minute later, they were in the kitchen bravely trying for some curry, and about an hour after that, ready to curl up underneath the covers of their bed.

Jane had not thought it possible to fall asleep so early after not having done much all day, but as so often, she was wrong. Feeling as light and heavy at the same time as she hadn’t in ages, Jane hardly noticed Thor’s arms closing almost reflexively around her before she fell into deep, warm sleep. It was almost impossible to resist the urge of using her Infinity Gem to extend the night when Thor gently kissed her awake in the morning – if five o’clock in February could be called morning. She enjoyed the ten minutes they just lay there in the dark, cuddling, nuzzling each other’s face, but that was all she got. A light breakfast later, the kittens still asleep, they were ready to go – before Jane noticed the lights in the living room.

The television was still running, noise levels turned down but not fully inaudible, and every light in the room was on full power. Darcy slept on the sofa, or rather, she was tossing back and forth. Jane had seen this before. Was Darcy always sleeping so badly?

She crept closer, trying not to agitate Darcy any further. The Gem told her that Darcy was about to wake up.

“Shh, it’s okay. Go back to sleep,” she whispered gently into Darcy’s ear, caressing her hair. Darcy seemed to hear her, as her movements grew much calmer and the expression on her face more peaceful. Jane tucked her into the blanket that had fallen to the floor, tiptoed back into the kitchen to fetch some cupcakes and the rest of the tea in a thermos for Darcy in case she woke up, and turned the lights down to a more agreeable level without leaving the room in darkness.

Thor was waiting in the car. He had finished his driving exams in record time and was now very proud of showing off his new skills. He had a new car, too: a sensibly chosen van, nothing special, but big enough for their shopping and extended family – at once, if necessary.

Jane didn’t mind to let Thor drive, given how much he loved it and that he had assured her several times that comfortable, warm clothing was the perfect choice for their early morning date. It was warm in the car in contrast to the air outside, and they played a pleasant mix of evergreens on the radio. Jane snuggled into her seat, trying to evade the smells of the new car. She’d have preferred a used one, but Darcy had been right insofar as that at a certain age, cars became annoying, out of fashion, and got held together by more tape than anything else. Or maybe she had been talking about Jane’s collection of exactly two pairs of jeans she wore every day.

It was dark all the way, and dark when they arrived. Jane didn’t want to leave the warmth and the comfort of her seat, she wanted to stay and sleep. But then there was a whole new world waiting for her outside that car door…

They had parked in a small side street just around the corner of the promenade. It took Jane a moment to realise that the big black void at the end of the street was the ocean. The sound of the waves was deafening in the quietude, but she liked how the stars, visible in this little place, glittered on the water.

“Are we going to do star gazing?” Jane wibbled on her feet. They hadn’t sat in their little tower to look at the stars for at least a week now, and it was better under the sky anyway.

“Not quite,” Thor grinned.

It was a nice little walk through the little coast village. The buildings looked at least several hundred years old, the streets were narrow, and the streetlights turned everything a warm shade of orange instead of the clinical brightness that characterised cities. By and by, Jane could also hear more than just the occasional cry of a seagull over the noise of the ocean. They were definitely not the only people awake.

“The farmer’s market!” Jane exclaimed when she saw the first colourful booths appear behind a corner. Thor grinned. With everyone else needed at home and his new driving licence in place, he had taken care of their grocery shopping for the past weeks almost entirely on his own.

“They are only opening now. There won’t be a lot of people at least until sunrise.”

Jane nodded, trying very hard to suppress her giddiness, but blushing anyway. He had suggested to come here this early so she wouldn’t have to deal with the crowds. Maybe this whole date idea wasn’t quite so hopeless in the end.

Most of the stalls were still about to set up their goods, but some already sold to very impatient customers. Thor wasn’t in a hurry, quite on the contrary. He seemed to know at least half the merchants, chatted a little here, tried some apple there, and was recommended some carrots of surreal colour in yet another place. Absolutely everyone recognised Jane, so she didn’t have to introduce herself – and wondered whatever Thor chatted about when he was out fetching groceries on his own. He did the talking now, too, although Jane hardly listened. She was too distracted by the sheer amount of colours and shapes of all the food around her. One thing was for sure: that she had never, ever seen so many fruits and vegetables in one place, and a lot of them for the first time, too. After a while she even started to ask what was what and how it was to be prepared, the way Thor did, with the result that people talked to _her_. That was odd. But tasty, too, because for some odd reason the merchants all had a habit of showering Jane with samples. Maybe they thought she needed more vitamins, or they had read about her baking adventures in Darcy’s blog.

Indeed Jane found a lot of new fillings for her pies and cakes, and even some vegetables she faintly remembered having eaten as a child. Of those they took several bagfuls, and not just because the Lady, speaking with a distinct Scottish accent, couldn’t stop giving them her best family recipes.

The sun was rising in shades of pale grey, blue, rose and orange when they sat in a small café directly by the promenade, their car parked around the corner filled to the brim with all the deliciousness a garden could produce. The café’s owner had met them at the market and promptly invited them over for breakfast (Thor insisted on paying anyway, so he didn’t have to worry about ordering seconds for both of them right with their first order). There was no-one except for the occasional jogging earlybird getting their sugar/gluten/deiry-free herb-flavoured protein muffin, and they enjoyed their food and a truly lovely coffee unperturbed (plain coffee for Thor, who sipped the fragrant liquid with the same expression the cats wore when they were allowed cat milk, and a big latte caramel-hazelnut-syrup-with-everything-sugary for Jane, the first cup not even lasting two minutes). As they had both munched third helpings, Jane snuggled up to Thor on the padded bench of their nook, and together they had themselves comfortably engulfed by the good old cliché of a breakfast date at the sea, minus the sand of the beach getting everywhere.

Perfect date was perfect.

The season’s feeble tourist rush was only about to start when they had already arrived at their home. Nick waved at them from his letterbox, newspapers in hand and clad in a certain fluffy bathrobe and bunny slippers.

“Had a good morning?”

“Quite nice,” Jane grinned.

Nick pointed up at their house.

“I’m not sure if you noticed, but there is a six-legged giant cow standing on your roof. Again.”

Jane and Thor turned around.

“Birdie…” Thor sighed. The alien calf loved to nudge open the wormhole door and follow them to their house. How it managed to climb the roof, however, was not quite obvious to either of them, especially as Birdie seemed very comfortable up there, dozing and snapping at the occasional nosy crow.

A bit of a hubbub on the other side of the street made them all concentrate on more Earthly matters again. A family stood there, grandparents, parents and several children. An elderly woman looked scared, but the other adults seemed tired enough to fall asleep where they stood – or maybe that was a mere blankness in their eyes. The children were clearly amazed by their surroundings, staring at every building, every garden. The baby in one of the women’s arms was wailing, tired and cold.

Refugees, Jane saw as she grasped for the glow of her Infinity Gem. She looked a bit further: at the house the council worker was about to show to the family, at the empty, tiny flat they were about to move into, too shabby to attract more wealthy residents. At the plastic bags they carried, containing no more than a handful of blankets and half a teddy bear. Back to her own house, the many furnished guest rooms, the big kitchen, and two rather bored kittens the size and fluffiness of bear cubs.

“Jane, where –” she heard Nick ask. Thor, having sensed her thoughts, was already by her side. Over her shoulder, she said:

“Remember what I said about the Avengers asking if anyone needs our help? I’m gonna ask.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing has been slow of late, so I can't say for sure if there'll be an update next week. Sorry! :/


	33. Chapter 33

Jay had not seen the city in the light of late spring, but of this day, even the radiant warmth could not hold her attention. She had hardly landed on the concrete of the old parking space when she was already running over to where Sam waited for her.

“Hey!” she beamed, about to jump up at Sam to hug him – only to stop awkwardly. Jay had worked very hard on herself, and by now quick hugs were okay for her, but with Sam she had never so much as shaken hands. Actually, shaking hands was something Jay disliked distinctly, too.

“Oh, come on,” he said with a weary smile, followed by a curt but hearty embrace. Jay bit her lip as she stepped back again, tucking her hair behind her ear. It had grown almost to chin-length.

“It’s been so long.”

“Yeah, feels more like three years than three months,” he said with that same somehow creaky smile.

It wasn’t as if they hadn’t seen each other in all that time. The last time they had met had been about a month ago, when Jay and Darcy had visited Thor and Jane where they were helping the locals to rebuild a city that had been badly damaged in a civil war. Most of the Avengers were there, taking turns so that everyone could return home once in a while. Bruce had returned to Earth in order to help. It was amazing how quickly such work went if it was properly supported, and by the media, too. There was a new trust financing it all, and the public interest was big enough to provide a steady influx of donations. They had already set up several other charity projects, as well as a very popular social media campaign in which Darcy explained how it all worked, and how people could set up their own projects.

Still, Darcy had been with Jay up in the stars for most of the time – Jane’s order. The city hadn’t been a safe place for quite a while, and nobody who wasn’t an Avenger was supposed to be there. However, and although Darcy had been very successful in making Steve, Tony and Thor the faces of her marketing campaign, they had only done what the remaining locals had asked them for: helping to keep everything peaceful, a bit of actual construction work, a hand here and there. The donations and the decision what to do with them lay entirely with the newly elected city council, while Darcy kept complaining that she needed Natasha and Jane to do their share of PR, and a lot more women to join the Avengers.

It had been nice to have Darcy at least, and Gamora, Betty and Sif. One of the first things to be established was a wifi connection to Earth, so they could do video chats. Jay had talked to Sam, too, although not quite so often; she couldn’t quite bring it over herself to tell him that she had stopped attending the meetings without him. The strain of being amongst so many people she still did not know, the dreadful stories, it was too frightening.

Of course, Sam had read this off her face the one time Jay had been allowed to visit. He had given her shoulder a squeeze, which felt like the first and last time they had ever touched, and with a knowing smile told her not to do any counselling she wasn’t comfortable with. They had agreed to go together the first time Sam was back home.

“Do you want to go?” Jay asked. Something in his face made her uneasy.

“Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think I gotta get some counselling myself today,” he said. Jay nodded. She wished she could have done more for Sam than just trotting next to him through the morning sunshine.

The group wasn’t quite as big today. Maybe people felt better in spring. Jay hoped that it would make the talking easier for Sam, but on the other hand, she couldn’t imagine him to be intimidated by a big audience.

He wasn’t. Sam’s voice was calm and strong when he spoke of how his recent actions had reminded him of his former partner and wingman, whom he hadn’t been able to save. Jay had never heard this story, although she wished she had. She was so sorry for Sam that it was hard to stay in her chair, but he did not seem to need the support.

“And as hard as it may have been to be reminded of my partner all the time, I think this was also a good reminder of why I decided to let go. He would understand that. Thanks.”

He nodded at the group, who was applauding. Barbara stepped back to the podium.

“Thanks, Sam. That was very encouraging. It is important to remember those we lost, but it is just as important to remember that whenever we feel like slipping back into depression, we are not losing. It doesn’t mean giving up. It’s a natural part of healing, of getting better, and it just means that you’re getting there, and that it will be easier the next time. Don’t give up. Get help if you feel like you need it, come to our meetings or call one of the numbers on the pamphlet. Thanks for coming, I wish you a good next week.”

Jay had no idea why Sam looked so worried when he returned to their trademark corner of the room.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” Only then did Jay realise that her face was wet with tears. Oh, great. A smile, this time a real one, sneaked up on Sam’s lips as he handed her a paper tissue.

“Do you feel a bit better?” Jay asked as they strolled back. The sky had turned a little cloudy, but it was still warm enough for Jay’s sensitive skin.

“Much. Talking helps a lot,” he said.

Jay bit her lip. “You’re very brave.”

“It takes time. Maybe you’ll talk about it one day, and it will do you good, but that doesn’t come easy. Not like that. Give yourself the time.”

“Still, losing your friend…”

Sam looked at the pavement as he walked. “I guess Riley was more than that. We were… as close as any possible.” He caught Jay’s questioning gaze. “Sorry if this is a little direct, but – I don’t have physical relationships. Platonic only for me.”

Jay needed a moment to understand. Thor had said that she should have a latent talent for the reading of minds, and if she did, it helped now.

“That’s – that’s possible?” she squeaked hoarsely.

Sam looked at her with guarded wariness. “Uh, yeah. It’s more common than people think. Steve’s the same, at least so far. You never know who Nat suggests him to date, one day he may even go. Oh, Nat is completely aromantic, too. Too many bad experiences, but… what?”

“That’s awesome,” Jay beamed. It was. “I mean, not about Nat. Poor Nat. But – that you’re all like that.”

“You don’t think it strange?”

“I thought I was strange.” Jay’s expression sobered. “Well, for the last two hundred years. I lived in a convent.”

“Nice! I’ve thought about joining a monastery. For about two days when I was twenty-three,” Sam grinned.

They kept walking in quietude after that, but somehow, this was much easier to bear than any talk they could have had before. Jay could not stop thinking about what she had just learned. It meant one thing, one huge thing: that there was love for her. That she could still love someone with her heart, and her heart only, and that that person may love her, too. It was a fine, fine day indeed.

“Let’s go somewhere else,” she said. The moment was too good to end so quickly.

Sam said, “I promised Nat to have lunch at home with her, and I have to be at SHIELD’s after that…” Jay’s heart sank, when it had just taken to fluttering around the moon visible in the morning sky. “… so if you don’t mind a quick pasta al fungi out of the microwave, consider yourself invited.”

“Invited!” Jay spurted out as quickly as she could. “If – if it’s okay to you and Natasha,” she added just as quickly. Sam rolled his eyes, but grinned.

It was the first time Jay took the subway, and although she was a little afraid of walking down the stairs, Sam’s calm manner and the sensation of standing in a quickly moving train turned out quite enjoyable.

“Sorry this isn’t a very pretty area,” Sam said as they went over to the former warehouse, now turned into flats. “They’re trying to bring up the real estate prices, so they’ll do a lot to make it nicer here… but there’s a big wasteland behind that street where nobody wants to build, it’s gonna be quite green in a week or two. Between the two of us, I may have dropped some flower seeds here and there accidentally. Steve is more of a tree type. If there’s ever a forest in our backyard, blame him.”

“It’s nice,” Jay said and meant it. The street may have been part of an industrial area close to the harbour once, but now they were overgrown with whatever could take root in the cracks of the buildings not yet restored, and on the dirt that had started to cover the streets. There was a whole tree growing out of the gutters. “They should leave it like this.”

“I guess it would sell pretty well if they called it modern art,” Sam shrugged. “Sorry, stairs only. We got the apartment cheaper because there’s no elevator.”

“It’s great!” Jay whispered as Sam let her into the flat. High ceilings and windows, lots of light. The spacious hallways opened to a generously sized living room, from where the kitchen and another corridor to the bed-, bath-, and guestrooms could be reached. A staircase at the end of the corridor led up to the roof.

Natasha emerged from one of the doors, clad in her plush pink bathrobe and bunny slippers, and drying her hair with a matching towel.

“She has her own towels,” Sam explained as if he had read Jay’s thoughts. “We’re trying to coax her into moving in.”

“You wish,” Natasha snarled. “Hey, Jay. Staying for lunch?”

“If that’s okay?”

Natasha shrugged. “The more, the merrier.”

Sam hadn’t lied, he really was short on time, and Jay felt terrible about it. They had a quick meal of microwave pasta, as announced, before he apologised over and over for having to go.

“You show Jay around a bit. Go somewhere nice, okay? The museums or –“

“Yeah, yeah, go away,” Natasha yawned.

The door had just closed behind Sam when Natasha jumped to her feet, all traces of annoyed boredom wiped from her face.

“Are you gonna help me?”

Jay swallowed hard. She had just been about to apologise for not wanting to intrude on Natasha’s holiday. Just like Sam, Natasha had been away from home for almost two months, with only a short break before those.

“Uhm – sure. What can I do?”

“You can shut up about this.”

Natasha had walked over to a window, through which Jay could see Sam climbing into the back of a car and being taxied away. She couldn’t ask another question as Natasha grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the apartment.

They drove through the city in Natasha’s sports car, something Jay found exciting, not too little because she didn’t know what Natasha had in mind. If Sam called Natasha a friend, then Jay could trust her, couldn’t she? If she could help her, all the better.

The apartment building in front of which Natasha parked was much more luxurious than Sam’s place. This time they took the lift, although Jay could hardly feel the acceleration if it had not been for the old-fashioned windows in the lift doors.

“I can’t afford a whole storey, unlike some people,” Natasha shrugged as she unlocked the door to her flat. “Wouldn’t know what to do with all the space anyway.”

The flat was small indeed, and even Jay could see how tastefully expensive the interior looked – something she only knew from pictures, and quite different to her aunt’s palace, although there were a lot of golden things, too. Maybe Natasha was a Lady, just like Jane’s mother.

“I’m back, guys,” Natasha shouted, causing Jay to jump. A moment later, two people appeared in the doorway. The woman was dark-haired, slender, wearing a red dress, while the man behind her had dyed his hair a very light blond, but otherwise looked almost exactly like the woman. They must be siblings, Jay understood.

“Wanda and Pietro Maximoff,” Natasha introduced them. “And this is Jay – don’t you have any more names?”

Jay shook her head. No names she cared to keep.

“Okay, everyone, sit down. Goodness, you’re like a bunch of scared kittens.” Natasha orchestrated everyone into her living room, where they sat down. She offered drinks, but as her three guests declined, Natasha shrugged and poured herself a glass of clear liquid, knocking it down in one gulp.

“I found those two when we recovered the Mind Gem,” she explained to Jay. “HYDRA had them captured and brainwashed with the help of Loki’s sceptre, that’s all I could find out. I couldn’t leave them behind.”

“We did not believe Natasha at first,” Wanda said. “But we were wrong. We were wrong to believe what we had been told.”

“The point is,” Natasha interrupted, “that I gotta prove to the others that Wanda and Pietro are innocent, that it was the magic of that stupid sceptre that hypnotised them. They got special talents from it, too. Pietro is super fast, and Wanda… I don’t think you yourself have an idea of all the things you can do.”

Jay nodded. “I can sense the magic. You’re a grand sorceress.”

“I’m not,” Wanda shook her head. Her brother put an arm around her, whispering, “Yes, you are. You found out that we can believe Natasha.”

“You can,” Jay nodded. She understood the dialect Pietro had used.

“Splendid! You speak the same language!” Natasha clapped her hands. “That’s Romani, isn’t it?”

“… yes,” Wanda said as if suddenly remembering. She looked at Jay. “And you think you can help us?”

Suddenly, Jay’s excitement folded itself up into a tiny, frightened ball. “I don’t know how I could.”

“Your Gem, it’s the Time Gem, isn’t it?” Natasha asked. “I thought that maybe you could, I don’t know, combine it with Wanda’s mindreading skills. You could find out what really happened,” she said to the siblings. “If you helped HYDRA out of your own free will, or if they only wanted you to believe that.”

Wanda looked back at Jay, and to the latter’s amazement, she understood perfectly even without words.

“I don’t have my Gem though,” Jay said. “I can’t do a lot of magic anymore, I’m not that strong.”

“You just had a double serving of noodles,” Natasha growled.

“Very little protein,” Jay gave back.

“Do this for me and you’ll get the best steak they deliver in ten minutes.”

Startled, she looked down at Wanda’s hand on hers. Jay hadn’t even noticed the woman sitting down next to her. “Please,” Wanda said. “We have to know.”

Jay could sense Wanda’s magic like a warm, light scent entering her mind. It was a shy, careful gesture. She hurried to embrace the light it gave off, adding the little of her own she still had. A little turn for the past…

Images floated her mind, scenes and places in memories that weren’t hers. She could feel the trembling in Wanda’s light. The sensation faded.

“So it wasn’t our fault,” she heard Wanda whisper. Jay hardly noticed that her own eyes were closed and she was lying on the sofa.

“Keep that steak warm for me,” she mumbled in what she hoped to be Natasha’s direction before exhaustion sent her into the arms of sleep.

* * *

Sam had to suppress the urge of grasping Natasha so she wouldn’t fly off the alien skiff as they raced over an alien ocean, ending in… alien space. She was leaning over the edge to get as much as possible out of the experience. Typical for aliens: super technology, no seat belts.

He’d have asked Sif if she could go a little slower, but not with Nat and Helen on board, and especially not in front of the twins. Although they had only met two days ago, Wanda and Pietro already looked up at him like a sort of mentor. The last thing he needed was even more of Nat’s jokes on his expense, and Helen’s scientifically accurate reasoning as to why Natasha was right.

Nat had introduced the twins to him and the other Avengers exactly two days ago, after having coaxed Jay into helping her that the two were innocent. Sam still didn’t know if he should thank her or yell at her, for using such an amount of magic had exhausted Jay to an extent that he had had to carry her back home. In return, Jay’s aunt – Thor’s and Loki’s mother, queen of the universe or something like that – had called him the day after to tell him that Jay was okay, as well as inviting him and the others for a visit. Here they were.

“Can we go to the hospital right away?” Helen shouted over the noise of the wind. “You can just drop me off.” She had only agreed to leave her work on the premise that it wouldn’t take any longer than half a day, and that she could see all the alien diagnostic devices Thor had told her about.

Either Sif couldn’t hear her, or she ignored Helen wilfully. Only about a moment later, they landed in a vast courtyard at the foot of the palace. Natasha immediately jumped to the ground, closely followed by the twins who had accepted her as a sort of mother duck. Sam gave Helen a hand in climbing down. He had just safely reached ground, sending a short prayer of thanks to whichever deity may listen, when he recognised the small figure approaching them to be Jay.

She looked quite different compared to her usual, sweatshirt and jeans-beclad self. Underneath a hooded cloak of morning-coloured velvet that embraced her slim shoulders in gentle, enlarging folds, Jay wore tight trousers and soft, slender boots, and above those a many-layered composition of tunics, high-cut skirts and long-sleeved shirts. The fabrics ranged from plush velvets to fragile silks, covering and supporting every part of her body just the way it required, in colours ranging from light-hearted shades of blue via greys and silvers to pale gold and mother-of-pearl. In contrast to what Thor used to wear, there was no metal attached to or wrapped into Jay’s clothes, which despite their many layers looked as lithe and light as their owner.

“Did you have a good journey?” she beamed at them. It looked great on her, that pride of finally being able to present her home to friends. Sam thought back to what Jane and Thor had recounted of Jay’s troubles, how she had struggled to grant herself the luxury of a home, not to mention friends. The mentor in him saw the progress with relief. He quickly made that part of his mind shut up. No mentoring, not with Jay, not in this place. They were partners in the self-help-group, equals.

Right now, however, with Jay looking all the part of princess and young queen she was and should have been, that wasn’t quite so easy to keep in mind.

“Great, thanks.”

Before Jay could reply, the sound of shoed hooves on stone made her look up. A rider approached them at leisurely pace, reins long, the slender black stallion trotting with his head stretched forward in a relaxed manner. Loki, returning from a ride. Sam froze where he stood, feeling the others do the same. Natasha’s stance did not change one bit, but from the corner of his eyes, Sam could sense her every fibre tense in readiness.

“Good morning, cousin,” Jay said with a smile that could have calmed lions. “Our guests have arrived.” She introduced Wanda and Pietro, while Sam and Nat simply nodded. Jay asked with eyes as big as saucers: “Auntie told you, didn’t she?”

“Of course,” Loki replied. He let himself drop from the saddle more elegantly than Sam had managed in all his years of lessons in horseback riding on Uncle Barney’s farm and, reins in hand, walked over to them. “On coachman duties, Sif?” he teased up to the flying boat still hovering behind them.

“Only because it meant I could have this one for the rest of the day,” Sif smirked back as she turned the vehicle in a sharp angle and jetted away into the sky above the courtyard. Sam grinned to himself. He was quite sure that Gamora had a sturdier stomach than his and would enjoy the boat tour immensely.

“Ah, Loki, good,” a sharp voice made everyone look up. Darcy came marching over the gleaming pavement, only a tiny notion away from running, which betrayed the meaning of “good” in her statement. “We gotta talk about the reception schedule, and I got this – oh. Hi, everyone.”

“Hi, Darcy,” “everyone” replied sheepishly. She grinned, but didn’t comment. Darcy had met the twins via video chat two days ago, having no more words than “Great, just the faces I need for the TV ad next week. If you love me: go see a hairdresser”.

“I’m afraid you will have to excuse me,” Loki said, his annoyed face in stark contrast to the politeness of his voice. “A king’s duties never rest.” He handed the horse’s reins to a stable hand who had approached at respectful distance. Darcy turned, waving:

“Sorry, guys. Gotta handle the universe’s PR. See you later!”

“Darcy?” Loki yelled. She replied in similar tone:

“I’m your advisor, not your lapdog!”

“Then advise that awful cat away to keep away from me!”

Their voices could still be heard when they were far out of sight. Natasha said with shaken disbelief on her face:

“ _That guy_ is _king_ now?”

She looked at Sam, who shrugged and forwarded the look to Jay. She imitated his gesture.

“You can worry about that, or about Darcy pretty much running this place as well as the Avengers now. I hope it doesn’t mean too much knitwear.” Jay shuddered. So did Sam, although he tried not to show.

“I don’t want to interrupt,” Helen interrupted very much, “but would you mind pointing me in the direction of your healers? I think I have an appointment.”

“Right, sorry.”

Jay showed them over to the palace, explaining bits and pieces of the architecture. She was quite proud to remember the names of some of the kings and queens depicted in the statues, and although only Wanda really listened, nobody wanted to stop her.

At the entrance portals, a servant waited to accompany Helen to the healers. Sam grinned at the sight of Helen pulling along the woman at quite some speed, rather than the other way around. He was glad that Jay took her time showing them the palace, as their way turned out to be of considerable length – to the very top of the building, as he realised when he looked out of a window.

The reason for their long wandering became clear when without a warning, the dowager queen in person apologised for having them climb up all those stairs. Sam had to admit that he was hardly tired. The grand architecture and flat stairs made it easy to walk, hiding the height behind a lot of _wow_. The others seemed fine, too.

Queen Frigga received them in her own quarters, where a small table of refreshments the dimension of a banquet for twenty had been laid out. Sam was happy that this was one of the first things Wanda and Pietro saw, now they had more or less been adopted by the Avengers. After having had tea with the former queen of the universe, they wouldn’t be quite so impressed by anything that had so far made them shy on Earth.

The food was amazing, although Sam kept in mind Jane’s warning about the richness of the food. Natasha did not seem to know any fear, or what a full stomach felt like, for she munched heartily whilst chatting with the queen. Jay kept pointing out her favourite nibbles to the twins, sometimes addressing Sam, too. Mostly though he helped Nat in keeping up the conversation, so she didn’t have to talk with a full mouth, or simply took in the incredible scene.

Betty joined them when they had more or less finished their meal. She offered to show the city to the twins, to which they happily agreed after a confirming look at Nat and the queen. The latter two wanted to continue their conversation, so Jay took Sam on a walk. He didn’t mind moving a bit before the food in his belly could make him any sleepier than he already felt.

“Do you like it?” Jay asked with a mix of anticipating shyness and a badly suppressed grin. They were walking down a series of terraces, giving a good view over the city and more than half the planetoid.

“’Like’ is a bit of an understatement,” Sam laughed. “I’ll have to take pictures or I’ll never believe I saw all this for real.”

“Cool,” Jay said.

Sam took a handful of photos with his phone, and of Jay, then together with her. It had become so warm that Jay had left her cloak in the queen’s abode. Leaning over a balustrade that offered the splendid sight of gardens and fields, dotted by tiny farm buildings, Sam enjoyed the wind blow around his face, the scent of the unbelievably clear air in his nose.

“If only to have wings,” he said as a large bird of odd colour sailed past them. On second sight, the bird turned out to be a lizard, landing at a wall further down and vanishing inside some shrubs.

“It’s really not the wings that count,” Jay replied. When he looked over to her, the expression on her face had clouded over.

He asked, “That bad?”

“That bad.”

“Can I see?”

Jay frowned.

“See what?”

“If you’re really that awful in dragon shape.”

“No.”

He looked at her. She sighed, annoyed, no – anxious. “I promise, I’m not gonna cry,” he teased. She rewarded him with half a smile.

They stood on a terrace so high that hardly anyone, not even servants, was to be seen. Still Jay had a look around before she shrugged out of two layers of detachable sleeves that had covered her shoulders and upper back, and pulled off her boots. Then she straightened up.

“Remember, you promised not to cry.”

He wouldn’t. He stared in amazement as dark grey, almost black scales appeared on Jay’s skin, as she stretched, the proportions of her legs changing as the upper thighs shortened and the shins and feet grew, with talons instead of toe nails. As horns appeared on her head, a long lizard tail touched the ground beneath her skirts, and then… wings.

They were fantastic. Huge, wide, big enough by far to carry someone as light as she was.

“Sorry,” she said. “Not much of a sight.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” he replied.

She eyed him warily as he stepped closer. “Have you tried flying here? It must be great with all these terraces and the wind.”

“No, sorry.” She swallowed hard, then said: “I can only remember two times that I flew. Both times were bad.”

He shook his head.

“If I had wings like that, I’d fly all the time.”

“I don’t think I remember how it works.”

On a sudden impulse, Sam stretched out his hands.

“Try. I’ll hold you.” She stared at him. He nodded at her wings. “Try if you can catch the wind with your wings. For gliding.”

Jay eyed him for a moment, but finally, hesitantly, gave him her hands. She made very sure not to scratch him with her claws, but he couldn’t be bothered about that at all. Closing her eyes, Jay adjusted her wings to the wind. She opened them ever so slightly, just a little, and a little more…

… and _flew_.

With a shriek, Jay pulled back her wings and landed on her feet again, leaving long scratches on the floor where her talons held her. Sam was pulled along a few steps, leaving him laughing in excitement. Jay fell against him, too afraid to stand on her own legs, so he caught and held her. It didn’t matter at all to him that she was so close, as those warm, dry scales felt wonderful.

They sat down together on a nearby bench, Jay still a dragon. Sam sincerely hoped that she wasn’t too exhausted again to change back. Not when she had only done this on his behalf.

“That was amazing,” he told her. Jay leant against his shoulder. He rubbed her back, gently. Then he noticed something.

“Jay?”

“Hm?”

“Those spikes you talked about, on your head…”

She cringed.

“They’re horrible.”

“They’re not spikes. They’re feathers.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slow pace at the moment. Writing never comes easy, but with a lack of time etc etc it's just hard to keep up with the word count. I'd still love to hear your thoughts, of course, if anyone's still reading this.


	34. Chapter 34

There was nothing like the feeling of coming home.

“I can’t believe we missed spring,” Jane said as she looked out of the living room window. “Worth it, I suppose…”

“We’ll not miss next spring,” Thor replied.

They had been gone for five months in total, with only about two weeks at home in between for Passover. The Adwellani family had taken care of the house while Jane and Thor were gone trying to rebuild their former home, and Nick had made sure everyone was comfortable and the kittens didn’t get on their nerves too much. They could be mischievous with guests, the kittens, but showed a healthy respect for Nick.

“I’ve never liked camping, but I think that was okay?” Jane asked. They had only returned around lunchtime, with a lot of takeaway food from half a dozen stores on the way from the airport back home, and Nick waiting with approximately the same amount on the kitchen table and two suddenly very affectionate kittens strolling around their humans’ shins. Until both had each received a big handful of cat treats, anyway. There was little need to mention that the not-for-cats food was gone now, too, although not with any feline help. Jane had missed the kittens so much, something she couldn’t really say about the tent she and Thor had lived in for most of the time so as not to take away any rooms from the people who needed them. Meeting the Adwellanis in their new house in the city had been fully worth it.

The first thing on Jane’s and Thor’s schedule after lunch, although they had both been tired to the bones, had been a nice, long bath. So long that Jane had kept reheating the water with a little bit of magic about five or six times (it wasn’t actually magic, but every time she tried to explain the physics behind, people did that “would you kindly shut up” face). Maybe seven times. Then she and Thor had taken a nap on the living room sofa together, because that was closer than the stairs up to their bedroom. Strictly speaking, this was Darcy’s living room… but she liked having guests, whether she was home or not.

“What I’ve always wanted to ask: who of you unclogs the drains?” Darcy’s voice asked from the living room door.

“Welcome home,” Jane grinned from her place on the sofa, Thor sitting in front of her on the living room floor, facing the door. He was still half asleep, his hair entangled from the bath and a little damp. Jane had started to comb it with her fingers until it was dry, surprisingly silky, and ever so soft. They never used heavily perfumed shampoos, so she could smell his faint scent of dry sand underneath the fruity shampoo flavours. During all those late evenings in front of their tent, she had come to love braiding his hair, or just playing with it lazily, which he found visibly relaxing.

“I’m envious,” Darcy said to Jane. “We never did this when it was just the two of us. Goodness, you’re such a Rapunzel… not you, boss.”

Thor said, “I have been thinking about cutting my hair short, and shave the beard, the way human men do. To blend in a little better.”

“Living with humans doesn’t mean you have to become one,” Jane said tenderly, planting a kiss on his head without letting go of the little braid she was just about to finish.

“Come on, sit down,” Thor chuckled at Darcy, pointing at the floor in front of him. Darcy simply snuggled onto his lap, which made him lean back so he didn’t have to look cross-eyed at her hair.

“We should do something tonight,” Jane said. “Watch a movie or something. Invite Nick, for taking care of everything.”

“Did someone mention me?” Nick said, looking around the corner. Darcy waved at the ground:

“Take a seat, the spa’s open.”

“Too bad I’m not wearing my mane open today,” Nick said. “Who _does_ unclog the drains here?”

They watched a movie in the afternoon together, and after that had dinner at a restaurant-around-the-corner that served decent food in nicely private nooks.

Jane used the chance to look at her friends, the way she looked at Thor whenever she could, trying to make out how he was. There was something new in Nick’s face, some kind of warmth he had never really shown before. Darcy seemed her usual self, with a certain gleam in her eyes from all the work on her hands, but there was something else, too: some kind of relief, paired with fatigue. It had been a good decision to spend an evening out, with a good friend.

“How’s Mother?” Jane asked as they were halfway through a second serving of pasta. Nick had ogled his three companions with the words “Where do you guys put all that food?”, but nobody had had enough space in their cheeks to reply. One wasn’t to be careless with spaghetti.

“She sends her regards,” Nick said. “She’s gonna be in the city next week and asks if you have time for lunch. It’s about this charity project of hers.”

Jane sighed. She had hoped for some quiet days without any appointments clogging her mind.

“She’s very proud of you,” Nick added carefully. Jane nodded, a gesture of thanks for his consideration. She did have to meet Beatrice after all. Her mother had immediately volunteered to help with the many charity works the Avengers now had on their hands. “And while we’re speaking of being proud, you’re quite the PR talent today, Darcy,” Nick said.

Darcy tried very hard not to look too pleased, “Oh, _that_ … making the most out of this internship, that’s all.”

“I’m sure Loki will agree,” Thor grinned. Darcy glared at him, so he continued: “Not openly so, of course.”

Nick saved the moment, “I’m sure you have a very good influence on him, on top of all the good work you do. He’s lucky that you do all that for him. We’re lucky, too…”

“An _excellent_ influence. He’s only using half as much hair wax these days,” Darcy said. Nick smirked:

“I’m afraid that’s something I am not an expert in.”

They let their wine glasses clang.

“Isn’t it a bit much to plan a whole wedding though?” Jane asked. Pepper and Tony had announced that their wedding was to take place in the city they had just helped to restore, for extra media attention, a boost in tourism, and for giving the budding local economy a nice big business contract.

“I’m not doing it on my own, Stark Industries’ whole PR team is doing the coffee runs for me,” Darcy grinned not without pride.

“But if you need any help –“ Jane tried again.

Darcy yelled, “I’m planning the wedding you’re not giving me this year _again_ , Doctor Foster!” Noticing the sudden silence in the restaurant, she said to the other guests staring at her: “Oh come on, you all read the yellow press.”

Their sundaes arrived, causing a comfortable silence for about three minutes. Thor, who had perfected the art of assembling the optimal mouthful of ice cream, whipped cream and fruit on a spoon and therefore had time for talking, asked:

“Are you going to attend with someone?”

Darcy and Nick exchanged a glance. Nodded. Gently bumped their fists.

“Whenever you think your life is not a sitcom…” Jane murmured. “You’re not going with Beatrice?” she asked Nick.

“We are still keeping it unofficial,” he replied. “And someone has to save Darcy from being asked by Loki.”

“He’s not invited – he was, but nobody was happy about that, including him – but I appreciate the thought,” Darcy said. “By the way, Maria is taking bets on who brings whom, so if you want to place one… not you,” she said to Nick. “You always know everything.”

“Not fair,” he said. “But yeah, I do. You’ll never guess…” A cheeky smile spread over Nick’s face.

“Tell us!” Darcy shrieked. “I’ll do your dishes for a week if you tell me!”

“Save your dishes from Darcy,” Thor grinned. “You stand little chance. She won’t stop asking until you tell her.”

Nick glowered at Darcy, but there was a smile underneath. He leant back in his seat, obviously enjoying the attention, before saying:

“Sam has asked your cousin to be his date.”

The underwhelmed silence this was met with had one good aspect: it kept their remaining sundaes warm. Well, Nick’s sundae. The other puddings had disappeared miraculously.

“You know that we’ve been waiting for them to date officially since February, right?” Jane asked.

Nick stayed unimpressed. “Oh yes? And do you have any idea what Steve is thinking about that?”

Darcy’s brows wandered up to her hair. “The plot thickens.”

“His friend’s still not getting better?” Jane asked. She had no idea what Nick and Darcy were hinting at, and she didn’t feel like acknowledging so.

Nick’s face sobered. “Not much. Physically he’s alright, there wasn’t much wrong with him to begin with. He knows what day it is when you ask him and he consults a calendar when he doesn’t, but… his memory is the problem.”

“Loss of memory?”

“Rather too much of it.” Nick drew patterns into his ice cream. “He doesn’t know which of the things he remembers are real and which ones are not. Drives him mad on a good day.”

Jane tried not to imagine what a bad day meant. “Does he recognise Steve then?”

“Sometimes, but that doesn’t mean he remembers the true memories, from when they were friends. He’s been trained to see the very opposite of a friend in him. Helen has sent him on to a private hospital.”

“Helen, huh?” Darcy’s brows were doing a constant stretching routine this night.

“Do you honestly think Stark knew where to hire a doctor as talented as she is?” Nick said nonchalantly. “Not unless she publishes an essay about how quantum physics can improve how cool your car looks.”

“She has published an essay about quantum physics,” Jane interrupted. “It was great. I didn’t understand half of it.”

This was met with silence.

Jane had hardly noticed the summer heat all day, what with air conditioning everywhere and their own house being as pleasantly cool now as it was warm in winter. Now though, as they walked back home with the sun only about to touch the horizon, it was hot, way too hot for night time.

Darcy took Thor’s arm, “Hey, care for a bit o’ rain?”

Only about a moment later, some fluffy little clouds appeared in the sky, tinged in shades of comfy purple by the setting sun. There was no wind, and the rain that fell out of them in big, lazy drops felt soft as nectar on Jane’s face.

“Not when I’m still outside!” Darcy shrieked, running through the garden to seek shelter under the front door porch. Thor grinned as they waved Nick goodnight, then turned around to Jane. She could feel his smile carry on to her own face, turning into a broad beam of happiness there.

A sudden increase in the rain made her stop on the garden path, face turned skyward, eyes closed, and her arms stretched out so she could embrace the welcome coolness. She couldn’t help but jump and giggle a little, the rain was too good. When she finally opened her eyes again, she saw Thor leaning against the old bird bath they still hadn’t managed to repair, looking at her with the sweetest smile, one that shone all over his face. She had been so afraid that what they were about to see in those past three months would wake again what gave him nightmares. Those would never be truly gone, but if he smiled like that, it meant at least that they were far, far away for now.

“You’re a miracle,” he said.

“And you should stop saying that you can’t do magic,” she grinned back.

She went over to him, lightly putting her arms around his middle, and they celebrated the true miracle that rain was with a sweet, relaxed kiss. She could feel his hand cupping her cheek, smell his hair even as it was dripping wet, and hear Mrs Gupta on the other side of the fence sigh in romantic approval.

They were home.

* * *

Darcy was _busy_. She decided, she spoke, she organised, interrupted only by hasty meals and whenever she fell asleep where she stood. It was just what she had needed.

Whenever she didn’t make sure that Steve got just the right questions in a talk show or that Tony didn’t, Darcy had both hands full of work with the wedding. Absolutely everything had to be perfect, including the location, decorations, invitations, music, food, and of course the clothes for bride, groom, maid of honour, best man and the bridesmaids. Pepper’s only comment was “no silly bits”. Maria had a list of what she didn’t want on her maid-of-honour dress that was long enough to wrap the party square. Twice.

However often Tony changed his mind about his tie though (twelve times on one particularly unnerving Wednesday), finally the day had come. Darcy was sure that Bruce and Steve could handle Tony’s stag night, and Pepper had wished for nothing but than a quiet movie evening. She had fallen asleep halfway through “The Princess Bride”, with a comment from Jane that she knew exactly what Pepper meant. Darcy, on the other hand, was aware that Pepper hadn’t slept a solid eight hours ever since she had become CEO of Stark Industries. Probably not before that either.

Darcy had seen to the bride having whatever she needed – the wedding would be in the early afternoon, so no rush – and then had dashed off with Jane and Thor to have her hair done at the other end of the universe. Just a wedding, after all.

Jane was the first to be ready, no doubt because of Thor’s most clever ways of working up a plan with the tailors and the maids on how to make a dress Jane would like, not to mention have put onto herself. Darcy had to admit that Jane looked fantastic in the opulent ocean blue and gold, with fine golden jewellery in the shape of seashells, complimenting her perfect skin. The dress was tighter than the local style, and flowed straight down in strictly vertical folds so as to make her look taller. The golden belt did not simply surround her narrow waist, but followed the folds of the dress downwards, adding to the lengthening effect, but also giving the impression of slightly more womanly curves than Jane really had. The neckline was modest, pointing up to the shoulders where two gold pins held everything together. There was no need for sleeves in the summer heat. Jane’s hair was wrought around a most delicate wire of gold depicting the waves of the sea – a hint at Jane’s upcoming status as a princess as well as her origin, the planet of oceans – that left most of her thick mane float freely down her back. Jane’s hair had grown quite a bit, as Darcy noticed not without envy.

Thor, his common splendid picture in ceremonial attire, was busy complimenting his sparkling fiancée, trying very hard not to ruffle her style as they stole little romantic moments on the terrace for themselves. Darcy couldn’t be mad with them, the evening light up here – day- and night time were forever off between the worlds – was too pretty to waste for, say, Scrabble.

“Enjoying the sight?” Loki’s voice said next to her ear. Darcy had lost the urge to jump whenever he did that many months ago. “Ew,” Loki added as he became aware of the couple kissing on the balcony. “I had assumed you had better taste.”

“And I had assumed you had better manners than to pop up without knocking where ladies get dressed,” she snapped back.

“I only see one Lady, and she is well-dressed,” Loki smirked, nodding at Jane. Darcy elbowed him, and he took it like a – well, like a stupidly tall alien wearing so much metal that he could hardly feel how she bumped her elbow quite painfully.

“Behave, I can still get you an invitation.” Loki had been invited, of course. Tony had kept bubbling something about owing the goat-face a drink. Darcy’s words.

“For serious, why did you not choose something from your wardrobe here?” Loki asked. “You could have had a dress made, although even the plainest garment should suffice to leave a sufficient impression on humans.”

“Yeah, but the wrong impression,” Darcy said glumly. “I’m not a princess, and I wouldn’t be visible behind all that genuine princess glitter there.”

Loki simply rolled his eyes. His comment was cut off by the doors opening to the actual dressing room. Darcy, who had seen a lot of truly marvellous styles in her fashion life, could but gasp.

If the dressmakers had done a genius job on Jane, then what they had made for the half dragon was pure magic. Darcy could hardly make out the actual shape of the patterns on the dress, as they kept twirling and changing in front of her eyes in shades of pale silver, greyish blue and mother-of-pearl. Silver ornaments did similar tricks on Jay’s even more bony figure than Jane was, except her shoulders were covered by a light wrap of silvery silk, softening her silhouette whilst keeping it slender. Her jewellery was wrought of both silver and gold inlaid with small pearls in varying colours, a colour scheme Darcy normally abhorred, but it fit with the theme of little flowers floating on gentle breezes.

“Ladies, you’ve done well,” Darcy nodded at the tailors, male and female alike.

Jane, standing in the archway to the terrace, said, “Wow, you’re so pretty.”

“Beautiful as the morning,” Thor agreed. Jay blushed, clearly unable to find words. Darcy wasn’t a friend of measuring people according to their looks, but someone like Jay, whose looks bore so many traces of the terrible things done to her, and who had always been told down on their base, it was fully deserved. She had to learn that there was nothing bad in looking the way she wanted to look.

“Very good, cousin,” Loki said in his inimitable insufferableness. “Now, I expect an equally satisfying job to be done about your hair before you go down and amaze the mortals.”

“Yes, yes, fine,” Darcy said as she shoved Loki out of the room and gestured at Jane to do the same with her personal super-puppy, “you can expect all you like without standing in the way here.”

Jay had sat down in front of her vanity, three maids at once busy brushing and oiling her hair. Darcy reached for the fragile-looking circlet that waited to be placed on Jay’s head, shaped to match her blossoming jewellery.

“You heard your cousin. Time to amaze the mortals.”

* * *

Jay tried not to look too nervous as she waited in the observatory, knowing fully well that she failed hopelessly. The gatekeeper gave her a reassuring smile. It helped a little.

Darcy had timed their arrival on Earth to the second. She had left first so as to prepare their entrance at the wedding as a big event. Jane and Thor had already gone, Jane safely tucked into Thor’s arms so her styling couldn’t get out of place. Jay had no such luxury, and she hoped that travelling through half of Heavens would not leave her all dishevelled after everyone had made such an effort of her.

The gatekeeper had seen Darcy’s signal and the wormhole in front of Jay sprang to life. She felt the tug of the maelstrom, and before she knew, her journey had ended. Jay managed just so to land on her feet, trying to make a note of thanking Jane later for keeping Darcy from choosing shoes with heels for her. She was grateful that the wormhole needed a second to stop glowing, so she could change her poise from cat-on-very-cold-snow to something more elegant – or so she hoped.

As the light faded, Jay noticed that she stood on a broad red carpet – now quite singed – surrounded by quite a crowd. A real, dense crowd. Staring at her.

She was just considering to turn and run for it when she finally noticed Sam waiting several steps away from her. He stood so still that she had completely overlooked him at first. Now she was searching for a sign of welcome in his face, but it was completely void of expression.

“Uhm… hi,” Jay said with a shaky smile.

“Wow – I mean, hello,” Sam said, breaking into a nervous smile himself. “You – you look gorgeous.”

“Thanks. You’re very handsome,” she quickly replied. He was, in his sleek dark suit, perfectly fitted, as Darcy would have said. It probably meant tailored.

“I have something for you.”

Before Jay could say anything, Sam held out a small bouquet of flowers to her. They were incredibly beautiful, pale pink and white, and so tiny.

“It’s a bit old-fashioned, but I wasn’t sure if you know this custom… they’re to be worn at the wrist. Only if you like, you’re so beautifully dressed and all…”

Jay quickly stretched out her hand. “Thanks,” she felt a beaming smile spread all over her face as he tied the wristband. This smile was about to break when the bracelet couldn’t be adjusted quite to the terrible meagreness of her wrist, but before Jay could actually run, Sam’s clever hands bent the plastic so as to fit her. Finally smiling back, he offered her his arm. Feeling much better now that she knew what to do, Jay took his invitation, and together they went down to the big tent where the wedding would be held.

The ceremony was beautiful, Jay thought. The tent was open to all sides so the spectators could join, and an unexpected breeze cooled everyone down. Pepper and Tony never took their eyes off each other from the very moment the mayor led the bride down the aisle. The priest held a simple, both funny and heart-warming speech, and at that the couple exchanged rings.

The whole city was invited to the party. There was more food than Jay had ever seen in one place, all of it excellent. Several dance floors had been set up, and as the sun set, more and more people crowded them. Pepper and Tony had their dance almost unnoticed from the general mood of a town festival, and after that Tony quickly made space for Rhodey. Jay couldn’t help but think that Rhodey looked a little… not so happy under that smile. He was joined by Bruce at a table later in the evening though, quickly followed by Pepper and finally Tony, too. That seemed to be better.

Betty hadn’t come to Earth. Actually, she and Bruce hadn’t seen each other in quite a while, and Jay did not know why that was. She wished Sif and Gamora to be around, but they were still on their tour through the universe, enjoying their time on their own.

Jay had been to some of her aunt’s banquets, where Loki, once he grew bored which happened quite quickly, had introduced her to general manners and traditions. It wasn’t much different here, except for the dancing, which wasn’t seen as noble enough in the palace. Well, things did become a little boring after the dinner, and neither was Loki around for some little pranks he used to play covertly on other guests for his cousin’s amusement, nor did Darcy have any time for discussing the music choice the way they usually did with all the orchestrating of caterers and entertaining artists she was still doing. Clint was there with his wife and kids, but it was getting late and the children needed their sleep. The last time Jay had seen Natasha and Wanda, they had been dancing wildly in the discotheque of the big hotel that hosted most of the indoor part of the party, whilst Pietro enjoyed the attention of a whole throng of people. Nick had excused himself directly after dinner, no doubt having some interesting matters to discuss in secret with whoever he knew here, or maybe just for a bit of a sightseeing tour – one could never tell with Nick. Thor had taken off with Steve for a quiet drink somewhere else, doubtlessly with some spirits he had brought from the palace, and Jane was having an agitated discussion with Doctor Helen about some kind of medical machine, or so Jay understood. They could as well have spoken a different language, she would not have been able to translate any less.

Sam, who had sat next to her through dinner and still did, seemed just as bored. They hadn’t talked much, and now that their table was almost empty, Sam had nobody else to talk to either. He eyed her with something that could have been a cheeky smile, asking:

“Do you want to dance?”

Oh dear. She should have expected this, shouldn’t she?

“That’s a bit… I can’t. I mean –“ At Sam’s questioning gaze, Jay took a deep breath and said: “I can’t dance.”

“Can’t? As in don’t want to, or don’t know how?”

“… both?”

All of a sudden, Sam started to look around, his eyes scanning the square, then the buildings. Then he looked back at her.

“Would you change your mind if I showed you?”

“You’re gonna teach me how to dance?” Jay asked. “Not dancing like… like Natasha and Wanda?”

Sam snorted a laugh. “Sorry, no. Nat can show you that.”

He stood up, offering her his hand. “Your highness? Would you give me the honour of this dance?”

“It would be my pleasure, noble Sir,” Jay replied, hoping she wasn’t quoting one of Darcy’s Jane Austen DVDs incorrectly.

The hotel’s big ballroom sported a complete orchestra playing classic waltzes. Jay closed her eyes as they entered. She loved this particular piece, a melodic, string-dominated arrangement that reminded her of spring.

“Everything okay?” she heard Sam ask.

“What?” Jay looked up at him. “Oh. Yeah, totally fine. This music is just so beautiful. Darcy doesn’t like this piece so much, so I only play it on my headphones.”

Sam broke into a chuckle, rubbing his face.

“You’re only telling me _now_ that you’re into music?”

“Isn’t everyone?” Even Jane turned up the radio when she was on a cleaning spree through the house. She even asked Jay for her collection of pop songs once in a while.

“If only,” he sighed, still chuckling.

There was a buffet with some light refreshments, behind which a set of big curtains had been drawn shut. Sam gingerly stepped around the tables, gesturing for Jay to follow, and together they slipped behind the pastel pink velvet – and onto a large terrace, completely empty, which overlooked the square below. Thanks to the direction of the cool night wind, the music from the ballroom was still audible enough to drown out the DJ’s choices of light pop songs.

“Do you mind?” Sam asked. Jay did not quite know what he meant until he carefully placed one of her hands on his upper arm, and with the most tender touch took her other. “Only if this is okay to you,” he added, nodding at his free hand next to her waist. Jay nodded. She could hardly feel his touch through the fabrics of her dress, it was so light.

“Waltzing is actually pretty easy,” Sam said. “Just listen to the rhythm and let me give you the direction, and then we turn in circles around each other. Like this…”

She had no idea what he meant and was about to run for it when Sam set into motion, simply pulling her along. Jay had no idea what she was doing, but then she noticed the pattern of Sam’s steps matching the music, adjusting her own pace.

“You got it, that’s it,” Sam beamed at her.

Jay couldn’t help but gawk. “Really?”

“You’re a natural,” he said with actual pride in his eyes.

The music ended all too soon, and Sam let go of her hands… all too soon, too.

“Hold on.” She unclasped her cloak, which had threatened to get entangled with her skirts, and draped it over the terrace’s balustrade. Her dress was cut in Rianese fashion, leaving her shoulder blades uncovered, and the sudden lack of warm velvet against her skin made Jay shiver – or maybe that was the sound of the orchestra inside which had recommenced, playing a slightly slower dance this time.

“Can we try again?” she asked, returning to where Sam was waiting for her.

“You like it?”

“So much!” She bit her lip. “You don’t mind? Dancing involves a lot of holding hands.”

“So long as you don’t mind either… although…” Sam’s gaze dropped. Jay bit her lip. It was a lot to ask for, and she shouldn’t have.

“You know… I could teach you how to dance, and maybe… we could fly together, one day. If you still do that sort of thing,” he said hesitantly.

Jay bit her lip, caught herself, and stopped it.

“I’ll need to practise.” Actually, she had. She had tried to float a little, but had been too afraid to go any further on her own. With a partner though…

Sam held out his hands to her, a sweet little smile on his face. Jay took them, taking care not to scratch him as her talons returned. The wings heavy on her back, she felt for the wind. Maybe it was a bit too weak to keep her in the air, but if she managed to catch a current strong enough –

“Would you be so generous as to grant me this dance, too?” Sam woke her from her musings. Jay blinked, letting the music draw her into a slow twirl with Sam the centre point of her moves. She was about to will her wings into disappearing again, but Sam’s little smile, the way his grip felt steady, if tender, around her fingers, kept Jay from doing so. Wings or no, tonight she was dancing on clouds.

* * *

It had grown quite late when Jane finally saw Thor return to the main square. The party was going on at full throttle and would continue all the way into the morning, but the newlyweds had vanished a long time ago. Helen was leaning against Jane’s shoulder, snoring softly – jetlag plus some very good wine, or so Darcy had assured – while Thor helped a slightly staggering Steve manoeuvre around some chairs. Jane got up, carefully holding Helen so as not to wake her, and Thor let Steve sit down on Jane’s chair. They arranged Helen to lean against Steve’s shoulder, and left the two of them to their well-deserved nap.

“Did you have a nice evening?” Thor asked quietly as they walked side-by-side through the now almost entirely empty dining area. Everyone still up was dancing away the night.

“It was great!” Jane caught herself babbling, but couldn’t care less. “Helen could explain all those medical devices to me, and what she could do if she had something similar. She’s asked if I could lend her a hand with the physics and stuff, but honestly, I don’t think she needs any help. She’s got it all figured out.”

Thor looked astonished. “And she’s only seen the healers for about an afternoon’s time.”

Jane nodded quickly. “And just so you know, we haven’t been talking about you for a second,” she added with a teasing grin.

“My heart is broken,” Thor grinned back. “But you will still have her make sure the Gem -?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’ve made an appointment for when Sif and Gamora are back, and we’ll take Jay, Wanda and Pietro along, too. Oh, and there’s been an e-mail from Doctor Kapoor, you can have your appointment next Friday.”

“Thanks,” Thor nodded. They had both agreed that returning to semi-regular counselling was the sensible thing to do for him.

The clock at the town hall showed ten minutes past two as they became aware of Wanda wandering over to them. She was joined a minute later by Natasha, who had restocked on drinks and was already halfway through her brightly pink cocktail.

“Nice work on Captain Fluff and Doctor Cuddle over there,” she smirked.

Jane looked back to where Helen and Steve sat with their arms around each other now, still asleep. “Do you think they’ll mind? Maybe we should bring them to their hotel rooms…”

“They can both do with a hug,” Natasha shrugged. “I’ll check on them later. You go wherever you need to go.”

“Cool.” Jane looked back at Wanda, who was stifling a yawn. “You should go have a nap. We’ll take the first watch.” Just because the city was at peace now didn’t mean some bastard couldn’t try to change that. The twins had wanted to stay up the whole night, but nobody had wanted them to, being all new to the Avengers and more or less everyone’s little siblings now. Jane and Thor had agreed to do the first runs in return for being home first. “I’ll wake you up when we’re done, promise.”

“Okay,” Wanda yawned openly this time. “If I find Pietro until then.”

“Look where the biggest crowd of good-looking people except us has gathered,” Natasha waved. That reminded Jane of something

“Has anyone seen Jay? Or Sam,” she asked.

“They’re fine.”

“How –“

Only then did Jane notice the huge black shapes moving around on the terrace of the hotel a little above them, on the other side of the square. Wings, moving around in a pattern of – dancing. Jay and Sam were dancing, with Jay in full dragon attire.

“ _Very_ fine,” Thor said quite impressed.

Natasha giggled, then wished them a good night. They saw her walk by the bar, now almost deserted except for Rhodey and Bruce who were having a drink together, looking quite relaxed. Maybe they were just enjoying the party, or maybe they had finally noticed that it was their first night free of Tony in years. Jane made a note to get them another kitten starter set for whichever holiday they preferred.

Jane and Thor started their little stroll through the city, seeking more quiet places so as to have a bit of time for themselves. It would still be a long night, and with Jane’s magical gem being linked to reality itself, they could go wherever they wanted without missing anything.

“Darcy will not be amused that you didn’t call her to see tipsy Steve,” Jane said, walking snuggled up to Thor’s arm.

“She will have chance enough,” Thor replied. “And next time I promise I’ll perform the ‘Men In Tights’ song with him.”

Jane nodded, appeased. That movie was a favourite in the household. She was quite sure that she had seen the roof wobble whenever the laughter started.

“And Mother said that dancing classes are on the list for us before our wedding,” she said, not quite so happy anymore. The sight of Jay and Sam on the balcony had reminded her. “Plus, whatever your people expect of a newlywed couple at their wedding.”

“Mostly things that we’re already quite practised in – not that we couldn’t always do with more,” Thor smirked. Jane grinned back. She was very much looking forward to go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The scenes for this chapter were written and re-written so often, it looks like a patchwork blanket now.


	35. Chapter 35

Darcy sighed. “And here we have the nervous father, awaiting the news of his firstborn… being born.” She was decidedly too tired for eloquence.

“Firstborn?” Loki asked in a satisfyingly confused tone. They stood in front of the door to Jane’s lab, firmly closed, or rather, they watched Thor pace to and fro in front of it, followed by two kittens making a game of trying to keep up with his feet without accidentally being kicked into the backyard.

He grumbled, “Well, metaphorically.”

“I don’t think you want to see this,” Darcy said. “Come on, we’ll go to the library.”

To her surprise, Loki followed without asking. Maybe she wasn’t the only sleep-deprived person in the house, or he really didn’t want to see his brother walking furrows into the hallway floor.

“He’s finished the first draft of his book,” Darcy explained, “and Jane is the first proof-reader. He was so fidgety while she was reading that she threw him out of the lab. Almost literally.”

“So long as he doesn’t want me to read whatever he’s come up with…” Loki snarled.

“Probably not, but you may find a signed first-print edition in your next birthday parcel,” Darcy smirked back.

They went into the library, a generously proportioned room with large art déco windows, thick carpets of a fluffy green that almost looked like moss, and slender bookshelves of honey-coloured wood, filled quite well already. Darcy let herself thump down ungracefully on the big sofa in front of the fireplace. It was flanked by several very cosy high-backed wing chairs, but the sofa was by far the most comfortable in half the universe. Darcy had checked.

“If you want tea, muffins, or cat treats, you know where the kitchen is,” she mumbled as she snuggled into the pillows. “I’ve been up for almost twenty-four hours again, and I’m not gonna prolong that with any more waitressing and no tips. Good night.”

“Good night.”

One could say what one wanted about the goat face, but questioning her sleeping habits was not amongst his numerous annoying traits. Oh, whatever. Still a goat face, Darcy thought before sweet, precious sleep finally engulfed her.

* * *

Jane knew better than to ask why Darcy was napping in the library while Loki sat in one of the armchairs next to her, calmly reading a book.

“If you want tea, Thor is making some,” she said, taking the blanket draped over one of the armchairs and tucking in Darcy, who hardly stirred. Jane did, however, notice Loki’s sharp glare at her, even if it did not last longer than the fraction of a second. She couldn’t be bothered.

Neither would she tell Loki that the only reason why she didn’t help Thor in the kitchen was that he needed to calm down after two hours of high nervousness. That was okay. Her first thesis paper had felt similar. He’d be alright once he started to argue with her over her comments. They all did.

“I shall be fine,” Loki said. Jane, who had forgotten what he was replying to, was quite sure that he was.

“So, how interesting is ‘Ten Ways To Deal With Dust Bunnies’?” she asked. One of Darcy’s contributions to the library.

“A compelling read,” Loki replied without so much as looking up.

“Cool.”

There was a noise of clanking tea cups, a badly suppressed curse and more clanking, followed by the sound of water running from the tap, no doubt to wet a cleaning cloth. Jane sighed.

“You will have to wait for that tea a little while longer,” Loki said with tender sharpness.

“You don’t say.”

“Of course, the future of your meals depends on how long your list of criticism is,” he smirked.

“Endless. I love that man,” Jane snapped back. She had been as nitpicky as possible, because this was Thor’s first essay, because it was awesome as far as she could tell, and because she wanted the whole wide universe to know just how awesome. Most of her points were mere suggestions or explanations on how academic writing on Earth worked, and the few actual objections she had were all based on how to translate alien science for humans. The theory in itself was brilliant, and she had added that to her comments because she found it worth mentioning.

“We _know_ ,” Darcy growled, “there’s no way not to. Now shut up and let me sleep.”

“Don’t sleep in the library if you want silence,” Jane grumbled, realising the mistake in her sentence a second too late. Darcy grabbed a pillow from the sofa and clutched it to her ear.

When Thor finally came into the library with the tea tray, Jane had already settled with the light-hearted fantasy comedy novel she was reading at the moment. That didn’t keep her from throwing the paperback onto the couch table once Thor lifted her out of her armchair and, sitting down on it himself, onto his lap.

Jane leant forward to pour tea, which Loki declined. She handed Thor a cup, who had picked up his own current read from the table, and prepared another cup for herself. Her tea vanishing magically within seconds, Jane chose to snuggle up against Thor’s chest instead of trying to focus on tiny letters on rough paper again. He surely could do with some snuggling, and not just in general, while she found her position perfect to think over Thor’s essay once more. Funny, how he really never distracted her from science. Or maybe that was just God’s way to show her that she’d made the right choice. _Thanks_ , she thought. Not that she had ever doubted, but it was good to know.

The sun had wandered quite a bit, the quietness in the room only underlined by the occasional flicking of a page and Darcy’s deep, steady breathing as she slumbered away on the sofa. It wasn’t often that Jane could watch over her intern like this, and it felt good, but also came with a pang of pain. Darcy and Thor were her best friends, and still Jane felt this distance between her and Darcy – or Darcy and anyone, although Jane might be wrong there. She had already asked herself if she should ask Jay for help, who seemed to have a more direct way with people. Be that as it may, Jane _would_ get Darcy to sign a contract for a position as her assistant with proper payment, health care and retirement plan, and if she had to play Jay’s ABBA CDs all day until Darcy yielded.

Darcy surely couldn’t read minds, for she awoke with a happy smile, most likely directly connected to the large platter of homemade biscuits on the couch table. Jane had kept herself from eating them all herself just-so. She had asked the guys if they wanted any, after all, but apparently there was a silent brotherly contest of abstinence from baked deliciousness going on. Jane shrugged. More for her and Darcy.

“You want the couch, right?” Darcy asked when she had managed to hoist herself into a halfway sitting position. Even with her hair all over several dimensions and the imprints of the sofa cushions forming star constellations on her face, she looked queenly, Jane couldn’t notice without a hint of envy. But then, she’d never wanted to be a queen anyway.

“No, it’s fine –“ Thor began.

“Yes, we do,” Jane translated with a happy smirk. Darcy rolled her eyes and moved to one end of the couch, while Thor, instead of making a fuss, simply carried Jane and his book the full five steps from their armchair over to the other end. Jane patted the small space still available and said:

“Wanna come over, Loki?”

She hadn’t expected him to fall for her teasing, but the way Loki and Darcy said “Definitely not” at the same time was more than Jane would have hoped. Very pleased with herself, she snatched one of the biscuits from the platter Darcy was holding out to her now, and had almost emptied.

“Still catching up on literature?” Darcy asked while Thor made a nest for himself, arranging his fiancée in his arms so it was comfortable for both of them. “Ew, Shakespeare.” Darcy let the book fall back onto the sofa as if it had been made of overly ripe cabbage salad.

“Ditto,” Jane mumbled through a mouthful of biscuit, which wasn’t much of the very large biscuit. Everyone in the house loved this recipe, and this cookie shape, although for the kittens, Jane used cat-friendly ingredients instead of cookie batter. She was sure that Comet and Meteor could smell the difference, but they always acted just as excited as if they were part of the party.

“Do you even understand the language?” Darcy asked. Jane looked at the cover of Thor’s book, reading “King Lear” and shuddering.

“It is not as difficult as one would expect,” he replied. Darcy rolled her eyes.

Jane asked:

“You didn’t recommend this?”

Instead of Darcy, Thor replied: “Mrs Lee from the library pointed this one out to me. She said that even if I didn’t like this author’s works, they would help me understand fictional literature.”

“I could live without that,” Darcy snarled. “And without that guy who used to call me Ophelia.”

A strange expression passed her face at these words, and Jane was about to ask what it meant, but thought better of it. Ophelia was certainly not what she wanted to be called, if she remembered the story of “Hamlet” correctly.

Loud meowing from the hallway made them all look up and caused Jane to smile. Jay had returned. The cats always greeted their basket-sister that way.

“I hope you don’t mind that I didn’t ring,” Jay said as she peeked shyly through the library door. She had finally accepted a key to the house, but still seemed to think that she was only a guest. Darcy rolled her eyes but, at a meaningful gaze from Jane, didn’t say anything.

At Darcy’s invitation, Jay squeezed onto the sofa with them. Jane felt a bit sorry for Loki, who seemed quite lonely in his armchair. Unable to do anything about the awkward silence ensuing, Jane did what she always did: run away.

“Right. I’ll get us tea.”

When she returned from the kitchen with another mountain of biscuits, a fresh pot of tea and more cups, the scene had changed completely. Darcy had stretched out on the couch again, her feet on Thor’s lap, munching the last of the biscuits. Jay sat on a big cushion on the floor in front of Loki’s armchair. His hands were forming a complicated gesture, and in result, in a glitter of green magic, the wispy image of a rose appeared over his palm.

“They’ve been studying with each other for a while,” Darcy yawned. This should have come as a surprise to Jane, except it didn’t. Maybe a little sister to take care of was exactly whom Loki needed, and Jay could do with as many loving family members and science lessons as she could find. Magic was a form of science after all, as she had proven during a lunch break a week ago.

Lingering behind the sofa where she could tickle Thor’s neck just below the hairline, Jane said to Jay “You really don’t have to sit on the floor, you know?” for about the thousandth time since they had picked up the little dragon, which felt like a lifetime ago.

Jay didn’t reply, but instead stretched out her own hand. A small ball of magical flames formed above it, shivering and shaking in a breeze Jane could not sense. Then, slowly, the shape began to stretch, remotely imitating a flower before it melted into nothingness and smoke. Jay swayed on her seat, her eyes dizzy, but finally found her balance again.

“That’s why I sit on the floor,” she replied with a shaky smile. “Until I get my Gem back.”

Loki ignored their exchange.

“That was good, but you need to –“

“Maybe we should open a window,” Jane suggested. She wouldn’t have minded Jay’s little hearth fires in winter, which was still many months away.

Loki said, “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you. It is much warmer outside.”

Thor stood up, lightly putting an arm around Jay.

“How about a little walk?”

“Aw yeah!”

She looked at the others, but Darcy waved them away while Jay and Loki had returned to their lesson. Jane exchanged a glance with Thor standing next to her and saw that certain glint in his eyes that spoke of only one thing: a good, long run together.

It took them both a lot of self-discipline not to dash out of the library, but it only lasted up to the hallway. Jane almost stumbled over the kittens as she made a beeline for the finally fully unfolded backdoor. Meteor meowed at her in zans typical heartbroken tone that could never ever be made up for except with a big handful of kitten treats. Comet was already dancing in circles.

“Remind me that I wanted to build a cat door,” Jane growled as she threw the door open, an almost impossible task with two fluff balls the size of sheep trying to get out first.

“You wanted to build a cat door,” Thor said. Jane didn’t care enough to return the mock as the heat of summer in full throttle swallowed her whole. There was only one thought left: the sea.

Jane had often thought that nothing was better than driving right into a wormhole event, at least until she had… _met_ the love of her life in one. Since then though, she had come to know a handful of things that came remotely close, and while it may not have been top of the list, running down the wild meadows behind their house, hip-high in flowers and herbs of the most fantastic nature, and then through the dense forest line before the beach greeted them – well, that was something.

Thor had the advantage of longer legs and bigger lungs, but Jane’s lightness paired with an Infinity Gem made her the winner of their scurry. Tugging at her t-shirt, she was about to rush onto the beach – until she saw the cliffs.

“Jane?”

“It’s totally fine!” she shouted over the blissfully cool sea wind. It was, she could sense the ocean being deep enough with no other rocks around the cliff. Thor was running up behind her, but before he could keep her back, she accelerated, jumped –

Jane wasn’t one for boasting, but for someone who hadn’t been to a pool in ages, her dive was pretty close to perfect. She dipped into the water as elegantly as a sea bird, used her speed to turn and broke through the surface all in one move, just to see Thor leap into the sea not very far from her. As much as Jane knew that she didn’t have to, she called for the Gem to show her the depth of the sea ground around. Everything seemed fine. Still, shouldn’t Thor have surfaced already…?

“Really?” she asked with little amusement the fraction of a second before Thor caught her feet, catapulting her straight into the next wave.

Alternating between splashing at each other, kissing, throwing each other into the water and laughing so much Jane’s throat ached, they didn’t think of leaving the water for quite a while. Thanks to the cliffs forming a long, broad bay, the beach of fine sand and very little pebbles extended into the water endlessly. It was perfect for ending up lying in the shallow, gentle surf together, out of breath and already hungry again (seriously, how was she supposed to get used to such a fast metabolism).

“Bleurgh,” Jane remarked eloquently, trying to tuck back her brine-soaked hair. “Sand everywhere.”

Thor hoisted himself onto his elbows, looking at the slowly rising dunes behind them.

“There’s a small stream over there.” His big hand was much more effective in getting her hair out of her face. “Care to wash it off?” he grinned. She returned the expression.

The small river that ran toward the sea was lovely. Its crystal waters ran over a bed of colourful stones that glittered in the sun wherever it wasn’t overgrown with fresh green. There was a little island only about three hundred feet from the beach where Jane and Thor decided to rest and have the sun dry them off. They _did_ try to clean the sand off each other without getting distracted, but… they got distracted. Distracted enough to hardly notice the rain clouds form above them as they lay in the grass – clouds in an otherwise perfectly blue sky. They vanished a long time before the couple in the grass had not just fallen into a perfectly deserved nap of exhaustion, but also awoken from it again.

Jane growled when her stomach did, but that didn’t calm her hunger.

“We should go back,” Thor rumbled with as little motivation as she felt. It was too good here, the air humid and balmy, Thor’s fairly impossible arms around her…

As Jane sat up, trying to remember where she had dropped her shirt before their swim, she regarded the fauna surrounding them, still dripping after the unexpected summer rain. She was aware that this was a fantasy place, but that didn’t mean that the perfectly ordinary hazelnut shrub was supposed to have grown into a giant with leaves as big as pizzas within the last hour. Mm, pizza. She tried to ignore the increasing growling from below.

“Darling,” Jane giggled, regarding the growth spurt the plants around them had suddenly performed. There were pieces of blackened glass in the sand where lightning had hit it, too.

“Hm?” Thor grumbled, still lying on his back with his eyes closed, enjoying the sun.

“You can stop trying to gain my pity by telling me that you have no talent for magic.”

Thor’s eyes flew open, blinking against the bright sunlight. It took him only the fracture of a second to regard the giant plants, the remnants of the rain, as well as the glass shapes surrounding them, and draw his conclusions. The resulting expression on his face, a mix of embarrassment and disbelief, was too adorable.

Jane had to bite her lips very hard in order not to giggle like a giddy gherkin. As proud as she was of her fiancé and his talents, this wasn’t something she’d ever tell her mother-in-law.

* * *

Thor was grateful for the ancient Gem having given him and Jane a lifetime together, but he had been just as afraid of unforeseen side effects. Now, however, as Jane sat on the counter of their sun-flooded kitchen, her feet dangling as she hungrily munched a sandwich with one hand and slurped ice chocolate – cooled down hot chocolate with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in an extra big mug – he couldn’t help but feel relieved. She looked so happy, her eyes glistening, her hair still half wet and encrusted with sea salt, and yet gleaming lightly against her now much darker skin, the points of her fragile, slender ears twitching at every bite, that Thor was more than ready to thank her God (should he ever meet Him) for granting this to them. As Jay had tried to explain the concept of religion to him, anyway.

“… not sure though.”

“I’m sorry,” Thor started, “I was absentminded. Could you repeat that?”

Instead of turning prickly on him for not having listened, Jane cocked her head, looking at him with a worried gaze.

“Are you okay? Are you tired, or, or something else?” Her eyes widened. “This isn’t about my comment on your book, is it?” She called his mere essay a book, too.

“No, not at all,” he replied, suddenly feeling not quite as self-assured anymore. “Although… I hadn’t expected it to be so… long.”

“It’s not all criticism,” Jane sputtered, “I’ve just noted down whatever I thought was… I mean, I think your work is brilliant, I just wanted to help with… listen, can we go through my notes and I explain?”

“Thank you.”

“And you need to ask your many friends if one of them knows a good publisher for academic stuff,” she added with grave seriousness.

He couldn’t help but smile, walk over to where she sat on the counter, put an arm around her slim waist and kiss her gently on her chocolate-flavoured lips.

“Your chocolate could do with a little more cocoa powder and less of the vanilla,” he said as he pulled back, doing his best at an expert impression.

“Oh yes?” she snarled with a grin right underneath. “I’m afraid you haven’t done the tasting properly, handing in annotations is only accepted in printed form within my office hours.” With that, she pulled him into a kiss that made him forget gladly about the chocolate. About printouts, too.

“I hope you have dinner ready,” Darcy’s voice cut into the kitchen’s blissful quietness. Rolling his eyes, Jane’s face not much more amused, Thor pointed at the food containers in the sink.

“Thawing.”

At least it was very simple to cook tonight: the five of them needed similar meal sizes, and except for an extra helping of meat for Jay which wasn’t much, and larger servings for Loki and himself, everyone would share the same dishes. Although she was the only human at the table, Darcy could easily keep up with Jane’s new-found hunger – or rather, Darcy wasn’t too happy that her boss was now a serious opponent in eating contests. They had tried with spaghetti last week, gratefully discovering that the wallpaper could be cleaned with a mere sponge. Thor was quite proud of the sauce recipe, his own creation.

Darcy snatched one of Jane’s new inventions out of the refrigerator, a sugar-crusted roll of sweet yeast dough filled with lemon-flavoured cream pudding. The thing vanished with no more than two bites.

“By the way,” Darcy mumbled through her treat as she regarded Jane, the sandwich in her hand and the empty platter full of crumbs beside, “this morning I saw the same photo of you in three different tabloids, one saying you’re anorexic, one that you’re trying to get a figure, and one that you’re pregnant.”

“I _have_ a figure,” Jane scowled.

“And guests,” Darcy quickly added as Nick passed her.

He held up a large bundle, wrapped in newspapers. “Trout, from the Mackenzies down the road. We play golf together,” Nick added for an explanation.

“Cool,” Jane said. “If you also happen to know someone in academic publishing who’d be a good address for Thor’s book on mathematics, you can have my puddings.”

Without so much as twitching with his eyebrow, Nick replied, “Ms Anjelou’s son is married to someone from the local university’s publisher. I play badminton with her next Thursday.”

“Cool,” Jane shrugged again.

While Darcy’s palm smacked her own forehead, Thor quickly relieved Nick of the weighty parcel of fish. “Thank you, that will be delicious in the salad.” He could see the cats peeking into the kitchen from the hallway. They could smell fresh fish from across the universe. Not-so-fresh fish, too. First, however…

“Would you mind if Jane and I left you for a quick shower?” Thor asked. “We just returned from swimming.”

“Of course,” Nick said, accepting a cup of tea from Darcy.

As they left the kitchen, Thor heard Darcy say:

“There’s two aliens practising magic in the library, wanna see?”

He could imagine Nick’s answer.

It was wonderfully quiet upstairs, if one ignored the occasional crackling of magic from downstairs. He was about to climb into the shower when Jane lay her hand on his chest, purring with a mocking smile:

“Careful. I’m not too eager for the potted plants in the hallway to become a jungle and blocking the way back to dinner.”

Thor shrugged nonchalantly.

“I am fairly sure the cats will love it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you thought you found a reference to "Two Broke Girls", you're right.
> 
> I just-so managed this week's chapter, but I can't promise I can keep that up. Sorry! Two weeks at most!


	36. Chapter 36

Nobody had ever accused Helen Cho M.D. D.M.S. of not keeping her working hours – well, except for the complaint that she worked decidedly too much. When Pepper had signed her on for forty hours per week, it had been on the condition that Helen stayed below seventy, fully paid. Whenever she didn’t, Pepper would send around Tony to get on her nerves until she did. It was quite effective.

Today, however, Helen did not feel like carrying on her research all the way until the sun would set. Something stressed her out, something that left her unfocussed and fussy. When she almost drank from a tube of samples instead of her water bottle, it was high time to call it a day.

She was too upset to walk home directly, and the handful of people she sometimes met – two of the lab hands, their names were Kylie and Bob, also Pepper, Wanda, and sometimes even Natasha if she was bored and Maria couldn’t make time – were busy, on holiday, or out of the city. Helen wasn’t so imaginative as to say she had friends, but working for people who were broadly of the same mindset, and who were somehow friends with other people of the kind, was nice. Just for a change, nobody begrudged her for having been the youngest professor lecturing in two countries in history, which was nice, too. Just for a change, squabbling with Tony and Bruce about what rats wouldn’t do was just as normal as videochat conferences through half of the universe with Betty and Jane. If only Helen had felt like talking when it wasn’t related to work… as if she ever really did.

After a quick stop at home (she should dust again), Helen took a cab to a ballet studio she frequented (for as she hated dusting, she wouldn’t). Today was her lucky day, there was no class on in the smaller training room so she could have it to herself for forty-five minutes. That wasn’t much, but enough to clear her head. Warm-up, stretch, breathe. It felt so good, Helen did little else until Mrs Bandynna knocked to remind her of the time. She was very precise on class times, Mrs Bandynna.

Although Helen had taken her time for showering and changing, the sun had still not decided to set on this unnerving evening. Helen sighed. Maybe, after all, there was somewhere she could go.

The private hospital was exclusive enough to be situated in splendid green, with a high fence and a very nosy door guard. It had been chosen because Tony had spent his only successful sobering attempt here, and because he never swore when he talked about his stay when Helen did her routine check on the after effects. The facilities could also provide a special suite that ascertained a certain durability. Their current patient had according requirements.

“Hello James,” she said after having passed another guard and a set of double doors. “Can I come in?”

Technically Helen was already in the small flat – no more than a day room, a bed room and a bathroom – but she preferred to ask.

“Sure. Hello,” James said. He had been asked about his nickname, Bucky, but he didn’t always remember, and if so, it upset him. Helen and Steve had agreed that only he would use the name, because it may remind James – Bucky – of their friendship.

James looked good. Clean clothes, neat hair, properly fed and rested. Given that he always had several doctors and guards with him, James could go out into the park, use the pool, the gym, the library, two restaurants and cafés, and all the other places with which the illustrious patients tried to forget whichever cause had brought them here. James wasn’t Helen’s patient anymore, but she sometimes talked to the doctor in charge. Even if James’s memory hadn’t improved so far, it was a little comfort that he was perfectly okay physically and responded politely, sometimes even friendly, to every member of staff as well as the rules set to him. It was the memories that upset him… seeing the people he remembered.

“Sit down,” James said, “would you like some…” He cast her a covert glance, then quickly sniffed the lid of the thermos on the low couch table. “… peppermint tea?”

Helen bit back her grin. “Sure, thanks. Tony thinks that scientists only drink coffee and energy drinks, and if he keeps asking me one more time if I want green tea…” She ended on a snarl.

“Tony is… your boss?”

“Yes,” Helen smiled. James looked at his hands, but she could feel his pride for having remembered such a thing.

“So…” he hesitated. “What brings you here on a Friday night? It can’t be the drinks.”

“Is it Friday?” Helen started. James took a small alarm clock from a table behind him and presented its display to her, where date and weekday were clearly visible.

“Here you go,” he said.

“I’d have believed you anyway,” she replied, hoping her smile took the bite out of her words. “And I’m here because… I don’t know, it was simply on my way and I thought you could do with a visitor. Everyone’s out of town at the moment…”

There was something almost cautious in James’s eyes when he said:

“Do you want to do any more tests?”

For some reason, Helen felt her heart sink.

“I’m not your doctor anymore. Unless you scrape your knee, in which case I can give you a band-aid.” Thinking about her words again, she added hastily: “Don’t scrape your knees though. It hurts.”

At least this had James chuckle weakly. “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

“Wait. Is there a problem?” Helen asked. “Are you in pain?”

“Define that.”

Helen may have been what Betty called “another one of her rare plants”, but she recognised haughtiness when it glittered into her face. She nodded at James’s left arm, now hidden under the sleeve of a buttoned shirt except for the perfectly shaped prosthesis of a human hand, rendered in bare metal.

“How is that?”

“Little different,” James shrugged. “They finally managed to scrub off that awful star mark. Never liked it, so I guess that’s an improvement.”

Helen was about to growl at him that she had been talking about the inflamed skin where James’s prosthesis was linked to his body, but she bit her tongue. That was something for his doctors here. It wasn’t why she had come.

“Maybe I was lonely,” she shrugged. “Sorry… I didn’t want to drop in on you just because I was bored.”

“Why would I complain about a pretty Lady paying me a visit?” he smirked. As if things couldn’t become any more awkward, this was the exact moment Helen’s stomach chose for a very audible growl.

Hardly able to keep back his laughter, James invited her for dinner.

They ate in the restaurant-style cafeteria of the hospital – surrounded by a throng of bodybuilder nurses, which Helen found a little distracting, but James was ever so sweet apologising for the little cosy setting. She sincerely hoped that he hadn’t noticed how one of the doctors had quickly taken her aside as she went to the ladies’ room, asking her if she really wanted to take the risk of eating with this particular patient. Helen had given him the coldest glare she had, usually reserved for insurance salesmen and whoever wanted to convince her of veganism. She was now contemplating to fling some noodles at the man. It was his own fault, if he kept standing a mere five steps away from her, in full sight, scribbling away on his clipboard.

The food was really good though, much better than what Helen remembered from the hospitals where she had studied. She told James so, plus some anecdotes about how they used to play scrub bingo in the cafeteria – everyone chose a colour, and whoever could spot the first table entirely clad in that colour won dessert. James laughed, but didn’t reply with a story of his own. He had tried that several times in the past, she remembered, never with a good result.

“Hey!” he started as Helen stole a spoonful of his chocolate soufflé. She grinned, breathing a silent sigh of relief that her attempt at distracting James from his lack of memory had worked. The soufflé was much better than her flan, too.

Helen declined his cheeky invitation to see a movie together, which certainly was only half serious. She suddenly felt like every minute of her day: getting up at six in the morning, work, dancing, doing social calls… how did everyone else do this?

“I thought you had a research job,” James said. “Doesn’t that mean you get the weekends off?”

“Weekends?” Helen asked. “Oh… wait… if today is Friday… tomorrow is Saturday.” She sighed. “I should know these things, but usually I just check my phone.”

He laughed. “I’d ask you for your weekend plans, but…”

“Library. That is… I don’t know if it’s open on weekends. And when.” Helen pulled her phone out of her pocket. “I just check their website before I leave.”

James chuckled, “I used to have a friend who was just like… no…”

“I can come back tomorrow, if you want.”

His attention snapped back at her with the momentum of a rubber band. “Walk in the park?” he asked briskly.

“Okay.”

“Two p.m. Jogging track.”

“Have your doc send me a text with the detail.”

James nodded, his jaw too tense for speaking, before two of the stouter nurses shoved him into his room.

It took Helen a moment to recover, but even then she didn’t have enough vocabulary in her head to ask if James was okay. He clearly wasn’t. She wasn’t his doctor, she didn’t have to keep her emotional distance. Neither did she have to approve of that firm shoving.

Helen took the stairs to the upper floor, where a room with a conference table for the doctors was situated. She knocked and one of the nurses she had just seen below – his name was Bill, according to his name tag, which was a handy invention for people of Helen’s indifferent disposition – opened the door for her.

“Doctor Cho,” he nodded, quickly stepping aside as she whooshed past him – and stopped. The room, or what she could see of it behind the corner of the small entranceway, was empty.

“Is Doctor Carmichael not around?”

“Dinner,” Bill shrugged.

“Uh – _I_ am here,” a voice said from behind the corner. “Sorry.

Helen, who was very good at not appearing startled simply because she usually forgot to jump, did not start. That she was quite speechless at having Steve Rogers materialise in front of her had more to do with the fact that a guy as broad-shouldered as him shouldn’t be able to hide behind a narrow hallway corner.

“Hello, Steve,” she said.

“Hello, Helen.”

“What –“

“Just… I don’t know. Didn’t know where else to spend Friday night,” Steve shrugged.

“Wow…” Bill breathed behind them. Helen turned on her heel, suddenly not quite as indifferent about the nurse as she had been. “Is it an Avengers requirement that you guys all look so gorgeous?” he asked.

She took a deep breath. After all, this hadn’t just been directed at her.

“Tell Doctor Carmichael,” Helen said very calmly, “that Mr Barnes is a WW2 veteran injured and lost in mission, and a hero. He deserves to be treated with due respect.”

Bill nodded stiffly, then left the room. “Wow,” Steve said. At a loss what to reply, Helen turned back to him – only to hear her phone chime.

“Sorry,” she smiled, never having been more grateful to Jane Foster for still sending texts. “She asks if I want the summarised edition of the Collected Truths of Healing or the complete works. Silly.

“And you want…”

“My weight in books from alien worlds, of course.”

“That can’t be much.”

“Careful there.” She quickly typed her reply. “Jane is okay, but sometimes she can be a bit of a klutz.” The second time they had videochatted, Helen had seen Thor walk by behind Jane’s chair, wearing a rather tight t-shirt. At the sight of Helen’s face, Jane had rolled her eyes, saying “My intern applauds every time he does that. There’s a lot of applause here.”

Helen looked back at Steve, whose arms didn’t seem quite comfy in his shirt either.

“And speaking of Jane’s family, do you guys even know how to pick a shirt in your size?”

To her relief, this had Steve laughing: “You think there’s a shirt in Thor’s size?”

“Jane says he insists on having everything tailored.”

“She should have a word with his tailor then.”

“Maybe Darcy had.”

The joke played to finish, an awkward bit of silence stretched out between them. Steve didn’t seem to notice, his gaze stuck somewhere far away. All of a sudden, he said: “I came to see Bucky, but I was told that wasn’t a good idea today, so… have you had dinner?”

Helen bit her lip. “Actually, I’ve had dinner… with your friend? Sorry, I thought you knew.”

“Oh.”

“He seemed quite well,” she gushed forward. “Until… he remembered you. That got him confused.”

“I see,” Steve nodded. “In that case, I’d better talk to Doctor Carmichael. If you don’t mind –“

“Nope, that’s fine. I mean, you should. Uh… I gotta go.”

As she dashed out of the hospital, waving for the first cab she could spot, Helen fumbled her phone out of her purse.

“Jane?” she asked as soon as the connection was established. “I know you don’t do telekinesis, but how quickly can you teleport those books?”

* * *

It was way, way too early for getting up, and still the sun was already about to set when Darcy wrapped herself into a light silken kimono to walk down to the beach. She hated waking up in the dark on principle.

Summer was about to end, and although everything pumpkin-spiced with hot chocolate under colourful leaves sounded nice, Darcy didn’t look forward to the long nights. She also had tons of knitting to do – just because Jane and Thor had made clear that wool was not amongst their favourite fibres, that didn’t mean the rest of the Avengers couldn’t be equipped with glittery jumpers in patterns of individual choice. Wanda and Pietro at least loved their matching sweaters. Darcy was quite proud of the pattern, tiny kitten and spider symbols in fluff rainbow yarn against a background of smooth uni-coloured wool. Several streetwear blogs had immediately picked up the trend, and all major fashion labels had been on the phone for the past weeks. It had become quite a bore.

At least the picnic was good, but then, there had to be good food around to charm Jane out of her lab. Well – not without her laptop. Jane didn’t even notice that Darcy thumped down next to her onto one of the big cushions as she said:

“But I think that doesn’t make sense.”

“Earth to Jane: I only just arrived.”

“Sure,” Jane replied, eyes fixed on her computer, “but it still doesn’t make sense. See this variable?”

“Yeah, and I see breakfast,” Darcy shrugged, helping herself to a steak sandwich. One advantage of having a dragon around was the increase in meat dishes. The advantage of having guests in general was that Jane used her mornings to produce true artworks of baking. Darcy would definitely take care of those raspberry cupcakes decorated with icing filigree later.

Four figures came jogging up the hillside on which the picnic blankets had been spread, overlooking the beach. Sam’s voice carried over the wind:

“The cabbage rolls are mine!”

“Run faster if you want anything!” Darcy shouted back. The little bread rolls filled with a well-seasoned fry-up of pickled cabbage, onions, mushrooms and minced lamb were heavenly. Jane had tried to teach her how to make them… they had kept it at one try.

“Thanks,” Sam huffed as he snatched the last of the rolls out of Darcy’s hand. Her teeth clicked shut on thin air.

“Had a nice jog?” Jane mumbled. Darcy lifted her brows in surprise at Jane’s sudden outburst of social niceties.

“Define ‘nice’,” Rhodey tried to say, but most of it was swallowed as he tried to breathe at the same time.

“Sit down, get some rest,” Sam teased, fluffing up one of the cushions for Rhodey and pretending to help him down. Letting himself fall onto the proffered seat, Rhodey wheezed:

“Very funny, young man. When you’re my age – in five years…”

“When you’re _my_ age, in nine hundred years,” Jay grinned.

Rhodey, accepting a bottle of water from Darcy’s expert waitressing service (so long as she didn’t have to get up), blinked at Thor:

“For you guys this isn’t more than a walk in the park.”

“I’ll go for a run later,” Thor shrugged. “If it suits you to come along, Jane?”

Darcy wiggled her eyebrows. “Yeah. _Jogging_.”

“Sure, let’s do that,” Jane murmured. Then she started. “Oh. You mean jogging like – _Darcy_!” she yelled.

“Whatever you feel like,” Thor grinned as he sat down cross-legged with the grace of a big cat and lifted his fiancée onto his lap. Jane didn’t look up from her laptop for a single second, she simply snuggled into his arms and handed a turkey sandwich over her shoulder. Darn. Darcy had wanted that rye-and-sourdough-smothered-with-avocado piece of art. Almost absentmindedly, or at least pretending very well to be so, Thor wiped a drop of sandwich sauce off Jane’s bare upper arm. Jane flinched a little, but that was all. Only about a year ago, she’d have jumped up a tree at being tickled.

Grinning like the Cheshire Cat, Darcy replied: “What, boss?”

“Shut up and sign your contract,” Jane growled.

Darcy sneered. That dreadful new contract, what with proper pay and all, gave her the creeps. “In your dreams, boss.”

“Just so you know, your wages are paid into a bank account in your name, if you want them or not,” Jane said, sticking out her tongue. Darcy huffed and snatched a whole handful of mini donuts for herself.

“Hey,” Sam protested, “we’ll need some energy after flying.”

“What, jogging wasn’t enough for you either?” Darcy snarled, saving one of the donuts for herself before Sam pulled the plate over to his side of the blanket.

“That was warm-up,” he replied smugly, turning to Jay. “Ready?”

Now Darcy understood why the little dragon had hardly touched her extra-large steak. The thing smelt fantastic and had already attracted the attention of several seagulls who waited nervously on a rock close by.

“Yeah,” Jay nodded. Sam wanted to help her to her feet, but she had already stood up in that unceremonious, not exactly elegant, but somehow just very efficient way that spoke of reptile – or kitten, Darcy wasn’t quite sure. It was the same way of moving with which Jay shrugged out of her knitted jumper, under which she wore a top that left her shoulder blades uncovered. For her wings, Darcy realised whilst she was still contemplating the genius of that knitting pattern: fine rainbow wool, hugging Jay’s slender frame, very long, with an even longer, silver-tasselled hood and a little kangaroo pocket in front. She reached out for the precious jumper, and Jay handed it to her for safekeeping.

“Ready?” Sam asked Rhodey.

“Must I?” the latter replied with an anguished face. “You’re a PJ, you’re one of the best paramedics there are, you could be a doctor if you tried, and you fly like a bird. You can handle this.” So that was why Rhodey had brought that robot suit of his. Flying practice.

“Sure, but what if –“

“I’ll make sure nobody falls,” Jane said. She was still absorbed in her numbers.

“You?” Sam asked.

“Mm-hm.” All at once, the dishes on the picnic blanket took off from ground, coming to hover at about a foot’s height. Darcy sighed.

“Alright, Darth Foster, we get it. The Force is with you.”

“I’m a Jedi,” Jane mumbled, glaring at some part of her notebook’s screen that held a particularly impolite piece of data.

Darcy, on her part, was much more fascinated by the swift gaze with which Jay asked Sam for leaving, and preferably quickly before she chickened out – even a rhino couldn’t have misunderstood that gesture. Sam knelt down to shrug into his mechanic wings, and off they walked.

Jane may be caught up in her work, but Darcy wanted to have a better look at this acrobatic spectacle. Ignoring her fatigue, she climbed one of the lower rocks. The seagulls weren’t too happy that they had to make space, but Darcy was sure that they had all been very nasty peacocks in an earlier life and deserved it.

She waved at Sam and Jay as they passed her on their way to the cliffs. Jay could do with the encouragement, and Sam looked as nervous as if he had to teach his hand-raised sparrows how to fly – a comparison that wasn’t too far from reality. Come to think of it, Sam had mentioned that he had nursed injured and lost birds back to health since his youth.

Jay wasn’t a little bird though. Darcy couldn’t hear what they were saying, she sat too far away from the wind-swept cliff, but Jay’s gesture that Sam should let her try on her own was unmistakable. After a last worried gaze, Sam started his jetpack and took off.

He flew a lazy loop around the cliff, not rising too high so he could keep an eye on Jay. So did everyone else.

She hesitated for a moment. Then the wings appeared, covered in black scales and – Darcy noticed that her jaw had dropped almost down to the rock, but didn’t care – a narrow line of glistening feathers, blue, green, no – pink… shining like a rainbow. One could but guess what Jay would look like once all her feathers had grown back.

The dragon-bird carefully tested the wind, took a shy step forward – then fell into a sprint, spread her wings, and _jumped_.

Darcy held her breath. Jay had dropped out of sight immediately, and Sam was on his way to catch her, but all of a sudden, a rainbow-glistening reptile shot out of the water, a trail of silver drops of water behind her. Jay spread her wings again, and this time she seemed to have caught the current. Gliding on the wind, she tried to follow Sam, and when that was still a little off, he adjusted his position so they wouldn’t interfere with each other. This went on for several rounds, before Sam gestured something and Jay confirmed. They headed for the beach, sinking low over the sea. Darcy noticed that Jane had risen to her feet and watched closely in case Jay needed help.

From what Darcy could tell, help wasn’t necessary. Sam landed so gracefully, he seemed to have been born with wings, and although Jay’s landing was a little rocky, she came to jog over the sand, ending up in Sam’s arms. Darcy caught Rhodey’s gaze and they exchanged a wink.

“See? No need for me to interrupt your rendezvous,” Rhodey smiled as Sam and Jay returned, both still a little out of breath. Darcy was sure that if she had been able through her solid scales, Jay would have blushed to the roots of her feathers. As things stood, she simply folded her wings and let herself fall onto the picnic blanket to dig tiredly into the big steak whose plate Thor handed over to her with a quiet smile. A smile much calmer than Rhodey’s…

Thankfully, Darcy wasn’t the only one who had noticed. As she exchanged a glance with Sam, he almost unnoticeably shook his head. So Rhodey wasn’t over the wedding yet.

“Rhodey, could I talk to you?” Sam asked quietly. Rhodey handed him a bottle of water, and together they walked over to a group of rocks distant enough to grant them some solitude.

“Sam is amazing,” Darcy stated the obvious.

“He can’t take care of everyone.”

Everyone’s attention flew to Jay, whose quiet, exhausted voice had taken them in surprise. She looked up startled, suddenly noticing what she had said. Then the penny dropped.

“Sam and Steve,” Darcy gasped. Okay, maybe she should just stop fanfaring out what everyone seemed to have guessed ages ago. But then, Jay seemed to have a real talent in spotting relationships… _Good thing I don’t have one_ , Darcy thought not without bitterness.

She sat down next to the dragon’s slumped-over frame. It wasn’t easy to put an arm around her shoulders, wings and all.

“Wow, your feathers are soft.”

“Thank you,” Jay sat quietly. “Are you leaving tomorrow?”

Jane finally looked up from her computer:

“Yes, I’m sorry. There’s a terrible drought we’ve been asked to help with. We’ll be off after I have my first test for autism diagnosis tomorrow morning.” With a wobbly smile Jane added: “Finally a test I don’t have to study for.”

“And why did I see you studying last night?” Darcy took a deep breath, then continued more calmly: “Jane, you know that you don’t have to save the whole world in a day just because you have a bit of an alien blinge stone now, do you?”

“No, I mean, I know, but – what was that saying? ‘With great power comes great responsibility’? I don’t even know where it’s from,” Jane mumbled, visibly relieved that Thor had finished his meal and now had both hands free to embrace her again.

“That comic,” he said helpfully. “Spiderman.”

Darcy grinned. “Guess what, I got a marketing deal with the publisher. The Avengers are to appear in their comics.”

Jane looked less than happy, but Darcy didn’t care. Steve had offered to draw a page or two. She was a genius.

Sam and Rhodey had left their solitary rocks and, clapping each other’s shoulders, were on their way back when a phone chimed. Jane pulled the device out of her pocket with a flabbergasted face – and that expression didn’t change when she looked at the message she had just received.

“From my mother,” she said.

Sam grinned, “What’s so surprising? Are Nick and Loki playing chess against each other in your library?”

Jane looked up.

“Yup. Nick just won.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a chapter with Helen. Phew! That took a while. Usually you don't introduce new main characters so late in a story, and if this weren't a chapter-by-chapter work, I'd now go back to have her show up in the first chapters. On the other hand, the character is already known from the movie, and it was fun to come up with a background story for her.
> 
> Next chapter will feature Helen in a prominent spot again, and there'll be more of Bucky, too (and all the others, of course). I'm sorry if I can't always keep up with the weekly updates, but I'm trying to make sure you never have to wait any longer than two weeks - if anyone here is really that eager for updates...
> 
> As always, I'd love to read your thoughts and opinions! :)
> 
> Edit to add: Thanks so much Shadows_of_Shemai for letting me know about the nomenclature of academic degrees! My, that's complicated in English. ;)


	37. Chapter 37

It was nice of the others to let her stand in front, but still Jane didn’t know why she had to ring Helen’s doorbell. Sif could easily have reached over her head to do so.

“Surprise?” she smiled crookedly as a rather astounded Helen appeared behind the sliding door.

“Quite.” Helen took in the group assembled in front of her door: behind Jane stood Maria and Pepper, Jay, Natasha, Wanda, Betty, Sif and Gamora. “Just to make sure – I didn’t forget your hen party, did I?”

“Two more years. You’d be really, really early for that one.”

“Thanks God,” Helen sighed. “Come in – don’t touch anything that blinks, beeps, or – just don’t touch anything.”

“Who of you two invented that line?” Maria snarled.

Jane ignored her as she grinned: “Guess who passed her test!” She had had herself checked for autism for the past months. She’d have liked a quicker result, but with all the things the Avengers had had to do, helping just about everywhere, that hadn’t been possible.

“Congratulations!” Helen beamed back. “Can I give you a hug?”

“Sure,” Jane grinned as Helen almost cuddled her into a rack of drying glass tubes.

“Oh, and you gotta see the new simulator I got for my birthday,” the doctor babbled on. “Uh – last month, I think. I know I’ve asked before, but when’s your birthday again? Steve showed me how to save reminders on my phone’s calendar.”

“November. Ish,” Jane replied. “I finally have the perfect excuse for forgetting.”

Natasha said with a deadpan face, “And now there’s two of them.”

“Anyway, the reason we’re here is that Jay and Gamora both carry their Infinity Gems for real now,” Jane explained, “so if you have some time, maybe you could do your check?”

“And for me, please,” Wanda added. “It’s been three months since my last check-up.”

“Good that you mention it,” Helen nodded. “I so need that reminder app…”

“It’s awesome, Steve sent it to me, too,” Jane agreed. “Oh, and did I tell you that Thor got a haircut? He’s shaved for the first time in eight hundred and twenty-three years, too.”

“ _What_?” Helen exclaimed, visibly shocked.

Betty interrupted them: “Ladies – could we get on with business?” As Jane and Helen did not even seem to notice her over their agitated exchange, Betty simply shoved them forward into the heart of Helen’s lab.

There was a small separate room in which Helen consulted her patients. Jay went in first, but insisted that Jane came with her. Nobody objected, in fact Helen was happy as she kept complaining how little an idea she had about alien anatomy, with Jane wondering how she was supposed to help.

The check was hardly necessary, as they saw when Jay transformed into her dragon shape. Helen wasn’t the only one who gasped.

Jay’s wings hardly fit into the small room, especially now that her feathers had grown back completely. Not even Jane had seen that yet, busy as she and Thor had been, and she suspected the Infinity Gem to play a part. Jay’s feathers were splendid, smooth to the touch but strong against every sort of ruffling, and shining in all colours of the rainbow. They covered her from head to toe now, or rather, to the tip of her long tail, where the biggest feathers must have been more than six foot in length. Jane could have bet that the horns, not feathery, had grown longer, too, and they glistened in the same sleek black as Jay’s talons.

“Well, I don’t really know what to look for, to be honest…” Helen murmured into her keyboard as she typed down her report. “Unless you feel unwell in some way, I’d say you’re perfectly fine.” Jay beamed happily at that. “Have you checked with your healers?”

Jay nodded. “Gamora and I both.”

Gamora went in next, taking Sif with her, and emerged perfectly calmly as if she hadn’t just dragged her girlfriend into the doctor’s office out of nervousness. By the time Wanda was with Helen, Pepper and Maria had taken their leave.

When Wanda stepped out into the lab again, she approached Sif and said quietly:

“Can I ask you something?”

Sif looked at her in surprise and shrugged nonchalantly.

“Do you have that stone, that Mind Gem, do you have it with you?”

“Always,” Sif frowned. “Why?”

Helen closed the office door behind her and joined the others, saying, “Betty and I think that the reason why some people can carry the Gems and others can’t is genetic, paired with a certain – uhm – mindset.”

“Stubbornness,” Natasha grinned.

“An understanding of how the Gem works,” Jane grumbled.

Helen stayed unimpressed. “We wondered if the Mind Gem is Wanda’s.”

Even Jane could see that Wanda wasn’t very happy about the thought. She could commiserate. Having a Gem wasn’t actually comfortable, and Jane still had bad dreams from what Wanda had told her about how she had gained her magical abilities. All because of that stupid glowy pebble.

“We can find out,” Sif said. “Without your slow, uhm, _science_.”

Helen ignored Sif’s remark and asked, “Do you want anyone to leave, Wanda?”

The frail woman shook her head. Natasha put an arm around her.

They all assembled around a big table in the middle of the room. Sif stepped next to Wanda and, without much ceremony, thumped the priceless Gem onto the table. Everyone gasped – everyone except Wanda.

Jane had to hold on to the table in order not to reach out for the little glowing stone in front of her, and Jay even took several steps back. Sif’s hand lay on Gamora’s arm.

“I’m supposed to feel some kind of pull from its magic, right?” Wanda asked. “I should want to take it?”

“You don’t?” Sif asked. Wanda shook her head, visibly relieved. Sif, still looking at Wanda, reached out for the Gem… and found nothing.

A golden light spread from the stone as it hovered over Helen’s outstretched palm. She stared at it with an expression of quiet amazement, but neither pain nor fear lay in that gaze.

“Helen?”

She did not seem to hear Betty’s question.

“Helen?”

“There is a little hole in the carpet of my living room that the guy in the shop didn’t tell me about, Ms Sanderson’s cat just left something yucky in the downstairs flowerbeds, and it will rain at 5:37 today, according to the weatherman. Wanda, your favourite song will be on the radio in… two and a half minutes. Please don’t turn it so loud.”

Sif snatched the Gem from Helen’s palm. The latter snapped out of her trance. “Sorry. Sorry, I wasn’t concentrating. What did you say?”

Wanda nudged Sif.

“I think you’ve found someone who will take that thing off you.”

* * *

With all the places they had been to during the last months, one would have expected that Thor had had more time for a quiet talk with Steve. As usual, between several tasks at once and more to do than a group of people who wasn’t the Avengers could have done on their own, there had been anything but time together. The little they had had would have been spent on training, which was amusing and sufficiently tiring, but could not replace words and quietude.

“I gotta say, this is something,” Steve nodded as he took in the sight from the balcony over the city underneath, as well as another sip of the wine offered to them by an attendant. Just sips. The day was far from over.

The terrace was placed at the top level of the healers’ tower. Helen and Wanda were here to be assessed for their wellbeing, with Helen carrying her Infinity Gem permanently now and Wanda accompanying her just to make sure. Sif had trained Helen for only about a month before she had agreed to leave the Gem with her. Helen’s explanation was that the Mind Gem was adjusted to humans, as it hadn’t changed her physically at all. Thor and Steve agreed that just like Gamora, Jane, Wanda and Jay, Helen was simply and uniquely magnificent.

“If there was a pool, and this could be my five-minute summer vacation,” Steve joked.

“You could do with more than five minutes of a holiday,” Thor said. “Isn’t it time for one of Jane’s holidays again?” She could do with a break, too, and the tasty foodstuffs that human holidays tended to require. They all could.

“I’ll check when my phone has service again. Which hopefully won’t be too soon.”

Steve stretched out on the settee, enjoying the sunshine. On Earth, it was almost time for New Year again, although that was hard to notice with all the different climates they had visited during the last months. Thor was quite sure that this meant holiday season, and it case it didn’t, given that Jane was not very likely to notice, he could just as well invent some.

“You know what I’ll never get used to?” Steve said, eyes closed.

“I do not.”

“That I just won’t get tired.”

Now, this was a problem Thor would have loved to taste for a day. Humans slept so little, he felt all the time he spent resting when with them a cruel waste.

“I want to sleep real badly,” Steve continued, “I wanna be tired and just nap somewhere. I haven’t slept for a full night since… I don’t even remember.”

“That will have been the day your mind stopped being at rest,” Thor said quietly, so only Steve would be able to hear him.

“When –“

Steve’s words seemed swallowed by a long shadow falling over him. As Thor looked up, Loki stood in front of them. Steve twitched, apparently not sure if he had to get up when the king was present (these humans knew so much about their own court manners even when they had never needed them, it was astounding), but Loki cleared the situation by letting himself fall onto the third sofa in the round. In contrast to Steve, he did not look as if he had a problem to locate his fatigue.

“Hello, brother,” Thor said with a quiet smile. “Taking a break from duty?”

Loki grumbled something that included the word “Darcy”.

Steve laughed, “Yeah, she grinds you. If you want a job well done, ask for Darcy Lewis.”

“To Darcy,” Thor agreed, handing Loki a goblet of wine and taking another sip of his own. Steve joined in with his toast.

At the sight of Loki sprawled over every arm rest within reach, and Steve relaxed back into his seat, one would never have guessed the history of these two – at least until Loki peeked through his almost-closed eyelids.

“Wait – which one of you two is my brother?”

Thor laughed. “I thought I should try wearing my hair like a human.”

“Oh well, now that you’ve grown as frail as them…” Loki shrugged mockingly. Thor felt their old brotherly rivalry tickled.

“If you are looking for someone to best you in the sparring square, I may have time for you next month.”

“Why, are you waiting for your beard to grow back?” said a voice behind them. Thor didn’t need to look up in order to know that Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg had found their little gathering. “And Loki, up with your boots on the sofa? I’m not sure if that’s the chief healer over there…”

Loki gave off a disinterested growl, but peered into the direction indicated either way. He immediately swung his legs off the arm rest and sat up. As Thor turned around, he could see Wanda and Helen step onto the terrace.

“Everything’s fine,” Helen said. The light of the Gem was positively shining from her smiling face. Thor exchanged a covert gaze with Steve. Helen had been a lovely lady from the beginning, but the way the Gem harmonised with her, it was quite impossible to miss her presence. Wanda hid a little behind the other woman as Thor introduced her to his brother and his old friends, but once Fandral dedicated his attention to her, she firmly attached herself to Hogun and Volstagg, which left all three of them looking quite smug.

They did not have much time for leisure, however. Helen and Wanda were eager to return to Earth, and in some way, Steve was, too. Not because they didn’t like it here…

“Leaving so soon again?” Loki asked as they all wandered down toward the court of the healers’ tower. He had had nothing better to do with his title than to stress that as king, it was his pleasure to lend an arm to Wanda and Helen each.

“I’d stay for the spa,” Helen said.

“I’d love to go shopping,” Wanda grinned. “But we still have, uhm, stuff to do.”

“Your friend is in capable hands,” Loki said, to Thor’s horror, in Steve’s direction. He had told his brother as to why they were visiting, respect demanding so. Still, Thor should have guessed that Loki knew well about everything edited out of that speech.

“He is,” Steve nodded, his face impossible to read.

“I am sure he will recover with such excellent care,” Loki said in a tone of seriousness Thor had never heard of him, “yet should you require something that is within my power to provide, do not hesitate to ask.”

Darcy was right, Thor thought. He had not just swapped places with his brother, they had also switched characters. Did Loki know about the ongoing prank series between Jane and him? Just when Thor had been so proud of the three dozen inflatable plastic octopus in the bathtub during their short stay at home last week…

“Uh, thank you,” Steve said. The arrival of a boat that would fly them all to the observatory relieved him of having to reply any further. Everyone took their leave from Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun, while Loki waited to have the last word, as usual. He stood with Thor by the side, using their last minutes together for a little more smalltalk. Things had indeed changed, or at least Thor hoped so, sincerely so.

“These little communicators Jane builds,” Loki said, pulling one of the devices out of magical nowhere, “they are quite handy. Sadly, this one seems broken…”

“Did Darcy throw it after you?” Thor asked in a low rumble. The twitch of Loki’s left brow sufficed for an answer. Thor sighed, switching open the lid in the back of the small gadget, and adjusting a wire that had torn loose in its socket.

“Happens all the time with this model,” he explained. “Jane was designing a better one, but then she went after some poachers.”

“Not before she had taught you not to hit technology to make it work,” Loki smirked.

“Really? ‘Cause for Jane it works.”

Both Thor and Loki started at the sound of Darcy’s voice. Thor could not help but feel a little pitiful at the expression of purest fear passing Loki’s eyes before they both looked down at the little human who had appeared right underneath their noses. Darcy fumed:

“Next time you walk out of a photoshooting to hide behind your older brother, I’ll –“

Loki turned back to his brother: “Is it too late to ask you to throw me back into my dungeon?”

* * *

“Thanks for staying.”

Steve was faintly aware of the crackling in his voice, just as well as the fact that Thor would not mind. There were times when he could not even show Sam what he really felt – actually there were a lot of those times – but with Thor, this was okay. Sometimes, as much as it hurt, a reliable friend was better company than those one loved dearest.

They sat in Tony’s workshop, waiting for Helen’s call. She was in her laboratory, together with Wanda, Gamora, Jane, Jay… and Bucky.

So many months, and no improvement on his memory. Steve had been there, had seen him try, had seen him turn more and more frustrated no matter how much strength it took to maintain outer calmness. It had been Wanda’s idea, and at first the others hadn’t agreed, except for Jay. That was why Gamora and Jane were here with them, to lend the strength of their magic to Wanda, and to make sure that in case something went wrong, they could reverse the enchantments, or whatever they were doing. Helen and Jane surely had better words for the magic of their Infinity Gems.

“Wanda is a skilled witch,” Thor said calmly. “She knows what she is doing. If she can help your friend, she will, and none for the worse in either case.”

Of course this was true, and of course Thor would have said the same thing just to help him relax, and of course it would not work. Steve would be grateful later, he was sure of that.

“Gamora can move worlds with her mind, and Jay’s grasp on time runs in her veins.”

Not an exaggeration. Just last month, Sif had told them of the time she and Gamora had spent together in space. Surely her accounts had only depicted a small part of the whole, and surely that was greatly exaggerated in some points, too, but even so it dwarfed the incident Steve had witnessed when Gamora had lifted her own spaceship into parking position – with one hand. Jay, respectively, had been quenching wildfire with no more than her willpower for the past two days. Sam had insisted on going with her, and he was scheduled to return this afternoon.

“And Jane turned the whole backyard meadow blue last week when she was absentminded,” Thor concluded.

Steve smiled crookedly. “I wouldn’t mind Bucky ending up with blue hair so long as his memories are fine. But thanks for trying to cheer me up.”

Thor looked a little crestfallen at that, but nonetheless gave Steve’s shoulder an encouraging little slap, much more gently than anyone would have expected from a man of his size. He really was a master of adjustment to other people.

There was a TV set in Stark’s workshop, and although operating it was as easy as sneezing these days, both Thor and Steve had agreed to pretend they didn’t know. It was an ongoing joke between them, mostly because someone not understanding technology made Tony flutter around like an upset pigeon.

“I don’t think it should take so long, should it?” Steve mumbled for the fifth or sixth time. Maybe seventh.

“Magic works in very detailed ways,” Thor mused. “My father never had enough leisure, but Mother once disappeared in her study for a full day and night. I do not know about my brother… he could give you a more competent answer.”

Right now, Steve wasn’t so far from taking Thor by his word and call Loki with Thor’s little communicator. Anything that would distract him. After all, phoning the king of the universe and his former opponent for a bit of emotional comfort wasn’t the strangest thing Steve Rogers had ever done.

“Is it true that Nick won a game of chess against Loki once?” he asked, not having anything better to say.

Thor chuckled, “He did. Although it should be said that –“

He did not get the chance to explain that it had been Loki’s first game, nor would Steve have time to mention that Thor had won against Tony when he had played first. It was precisely the moment when one of the screens in the workshop flickered to life, announcing an incoming video call. Steve was on his feet even before Thor, hectically pressing the button that initiated the transmission.

“Hey there,” a rather tired Helen smiled into the camera.

“What?” Steve barked. He did not have any more time to lose. Never had.

“It wasn’t easy – Jane, could you help Gamora with Jay? She fainted,” Helen explained to Steve. “Anyway, I think we did a good job. He’s asleep now, but he’ll want to see you when –“

Steve did not wait much longer. He sprinted down the corridor and took the stairs, everything that was quicker than the lift.

“In here,” Wanda said, holding open the door to a small break room. He hardly heard her close the door after him.

Bucky lay on a narrow day bed, sound asleep. He looked pale, but his chest rose and fell calmly. With any luck, he wasn’t dreaming. If Helen’s predictions had come true, he wouldn’t be much easier when he woke up, but he would remember. He would remember what was real. Something that was never easy.

As quietly as he could, Steve pulled up a chair and sat down. He did not know how long it took, only that at some point, the door opened again and Sam walked in. There was no need for words as they both sat waiting.

At some point, the sun had long set, Bucky stirred. He groaned, squinting against the light and finally regarding Steve.

“Hey,” Steve said. He couldn’t wait any longer. He had waited so long already. “Remember me?”

“How could anyone forget you?” Bucky growled. “But you have forgotten your shirt size.”

Steve shook his head, feeling a relieved laugh bubbling up inside him. Sam had his hand on his shoulder, and Steve grasped for it with his own while gently squeezing Bucky’s shoulder with the other. This was a moment to remember indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you didn't see that coming - or at least I hope so. ;) I'm quite frankly not a big fan of "Age of Ultron", but before that movie, I really had no idea what to do with the plot thread concerning the Mind Gem. Then Helen Cho came along, who is just the sort of strong-willed, visionary character who could use a magical stone enhancing her vision, and it was clear where that story was heading.


	38. Chapter 38

“No, but, synchronous academic publishing? Can you two become any more romantic?” Natasha said. “Nerd romantic. But romantic.”

“Uhm – thanks,” Jane said, pulling the last pieces of laundry from the washing line outside, tied between a tree and the rain pipe. Helen wondered how the clothes could dry in the icy air of late January.

“Jane is launching an online resource project for astronomers,” she corrected Natasha. “Technically –“

“That’s not the same as a book, yeah,” Nat snapped.

Jane heaved up the laundry basket, piled so highly she wasn’t visible behind the large stack of clothes, and walked towards the salon door. Although situated on opposite sides of the house, both this salon and the kitchen led out to a newly appeared terrace.

“Nat, help me sort this?” she asked.

Natasha sighed, “Okay.”

It was never easy to tell with Jane, and so Helen had no idea if the brilliant scientist had taken Nat with her because she wanted to leave Bucky his privacy when Helen tended to him, or if she really just wanted help with the laundry.

Bucky asked, “Thor has published a book? That mathematics thing?”

“Yeah. Did you read it?”

“I liked the story about the cat best,” Natasha said, appearing in the door once again. All Helen could see through the doorframe was how suddenly the laundry basket was shoved into Natasha’s hands. Nat sighed once again and disappeared with loudly thumping footsteps. Helen closed the door behind her.

“Right, let’s have a look at your shoulder,” she said, sitting down next to where Bucky was waiting for his treatment. He nodded, expertly pulling his shirt over his ears with his right arm.

It had been five weeks since his memory had returned. Helen didn’t like to think back. She and the others had agreed never to risk such a complicated set of spells again, not as long as magic was still magic and no scientific explanation could help. Luckily, they had succeeded anyway.

Bucky – he had asked everyone to call him by that name – was now able to differentiate between his true memories and the invented stories in his head. That did not mean his state of mind was any more balanced, nor that there was a guarantee for his healing, ever. He had agreed to intensive therapy though, as well as, and that had been incredibly brave, a trial. It was easy to provide full evidence that he had not been responsible for what he had done, both from what Natasha had found in HYDRA’s records as well as what independent medical examiners could say for Bucky.

There had been conditions on the judgement though, all of which Bucky had suggested by himself beforehand already: counselling, regular consultations with all sorts of doctors, and he had to get rid of the arm prosthesis. The latter had required surgery, but Bucky had been more than happy – not so much for health reasons, and more for the memories related.

Helen shared his opinion, except that to her, the angrily red inflammation where the metal had joined Bucky’s shoulder was the reason why she had wanted to see it off. Only his immense powers of healing had kept him from worse consequences. Irresponsible, but then, absolutely everything done to him was atrocious. She was glad that Steve had been able to find his friend.

“That looks good,” she said as she removed the bandages. The scars from surgery were almost completely healed, and the inflammation had receded. Soon enough Bucky would be able to go without the dressing.

“Why, is my arm growing back?” Bucky said with a little smile. That was their ongoing joke.

“I don’t think there are enough steaks for Jay to accomplish that,” Helen gave back. “Although, as a reptile… maybe she could teach you the trick.”

“I don’t want a lizard tail though,” he grinned.

She cleaned his shoulder, put on a gentle balm, and then dressed everything in light bandages. As Bucky slipped back into his shirt, he said:

“So when’s your date with Steve?”

Helen’s eyes snapped open. “What date?”

“He still hasn’t asked you?” Bucky growled.

No, but to Helen’s annoyance, she had heard that question repeated in at least a dozen variations during the past months. What was it with people needing to know if anyone else had a date?

“What if I’m waiting for a good time to ask _him_?” she said pointedly.

To her surprise, Bucky nodded seriously and replied, “Okay. Tell me if I can help.”

“Uhm – thanks.”

She waited for him to open the door so she could wash her hands in the next bathroom. When she returned, he had already cleaned up, so they went to the kitchen together.

Everyone was here. There had been so much to do during the last month that they hadn’t had any time to get together between Christmas – which not even half of the Avengers actually celebrated – and New Year, so they had decided to have a bit of a break now, almost a month later. It was the perfect time: Nick’s contact had greenlighted the publication date for Thor’s book, Darcy had put the finishing touches on Jane’s new website, and Bucky had been allowed a holiday. With everyone being tired to their bones from so much work, a big party was out of question, but celebrating with a quiet week of Thor’s cooking and Jane’s cupcakes sounded perfect. Everyone had missed Nick, too, who looked after the house and the kittens as well as any other guests Jane invited when she and Thor were away. He was handing out tea cups as Helen entered the kitchen.

“You’re not coming with us?” Steve was asking.

Nick gallantly added a splash of lemon juice to Pietro’s tea cup as he said:

“No, but I’m sure you’ll have enough fun without me as your chaperone.”

“Come on, it’s just an evening at the pub,” Thor said, slapping Nick’s shoulder. Helen watched impressed how the latter didn’t spill a single drop of tea from the cup he was filling for Betty. “Estefan has reserved zans best table for us. Just us, some decent ale. It will be fun.”

Helen noted how Thor omitted the obligatory “just us men”. Oh yes, his mother had done her job well.

“Maybe later,” Nick said with a quiet smile, offering the sugar pot to Darcy. “Retirement comes with a constant busyness. I’m still otherwise engaged.”

“To my mother, the way you talk,” Jane smirked up at him. She had sneaked through underneath his arm to place a highly stacked plate of muffins on the kitchen table. Nick mussed up her hair in reply, at which Jane squeaked and dove under the table. She reappeared on the other side just in time when the oven bell rang, announcing that another batch of cinnamon buns was done. With her Infinity Gem having sped up Helen’s metabolism to alien levels, she now counted herself as one of the first-row participants in the competition for freshly baked goods from Jane’s never-cooling oven.

“Betty, Bruce, you coming?” Steve said, turning around himself to check who else he hadn’t asked yet. “Gamora, Sif? You’re in, right?”

“Sorry,” Sif shook her head, not objecting as Gamora nibbled a herb roll out of her hand. “We’re also… otherwise engaged.”

“When are you getting married?” asked Maria. “What?” she added at everyone’s stare. “You have no idea how long it takes to plan a wedding.”

A screech from where Jane had dived into another bowl of cake batter commented that.

“Jane,” Rhodey sighed, “would you move over? Tony, heel. Time you learn how to make a cake. It’s Pepper’s birthday next month, as I’m sure you’ve forgotten.” He shoved Jane out of the way and pulled Tony over, handing him a baking spatula. “Now, the secret is not to overmix.” Pepper was the only person missing from their little get-together, as she had urgent matters to tend to for her company in the city and would only return at dinner time.

Nick took hold of Jane’s shoulders and placed her on the kitchen bench, together with a cup of tea. Natasha offered her the jar from which she, Wanda, Pietro and Jay had just stirred jam into their beverages. Darcy had made the stuff from some odd berries they had found in their backyard, and of which Betty, after a careful test in Helen’s lab, had said they were edible. Helen liked the jam on Jane’s scones, but she had no idea how anyone could drink it in tea. She gratefully accepted a cup from Nick, who had switched to yet another teapot, and moved to the kitchen bench next to Jane, leaving the outer seat to Bucky. The only thing missing from the scene was Gamora in an Alice in Wonderland dress and Sif with a big hat.

“You’re not comfortable, are you?” Helen asked quietly as the others engaged in a conversation about who was coming to the pub. Jane shook her head.

“No.”

“You know, you didn’t have to spend your break by inviting so many people to your house.”

Jane sighed. “I’d have felt bad that way, too. We have a week for ourselves after this. I’m gonna take a break when the cake is –“ The doorbell rang. Jane immediately disappeared under the table again, reappeared on the other side, and was out of the room before Helen could so much as wriggle out of the cosy bench corner.

A moment later, the kittens galloped into the kitchen, closely followed by two little girls. Their parents, Clint proudly carrying a tiny baby, took much longer to arrive, only to see Thor trying to calm down the kittens. He ended up with one on his shoulder, while Jane carried the other out of the room.

Natasha was on her feet immediately. As far as Helen knew, she hadn’t met her littlest godchild so far, and it showed when, much to Nat’s shock, Laura simply handed her the tiny bundle. Helen caught herself smiling at the sight of Natasha’s amazed face. She quickly looked away, only to see Steve show the same expression.

Meanwhile, Thor had walked over to greet their latest guests.

Clint smirked, “Congrats for your book launch and all, and thanks for inviting us to House, uh, what’s your last name again?”

“House Foster,” Thor winked with a smile. “Even if my people had family names.”

“To House Foster,” Sam said, lifting his cup of tea. So did everyone else, except for Tony, who lifted a spatula dripping with cake batter.

“House Foster,” everyone said.

Tony quickly slurped the batter from the spatula.

* * *

The toast reverberated through the house, clearly audible even from the corner of the upstairs hallways where Jane cowered with Comet in her arms. The kitten didn’t accept anyone but her and Thor, and only Jane was allowed to hold zan. She was very well aware of the rules of politeness saying that she had to return to the kitchen, but just for the moment, she was very grateful to Comet for being just as much of a coward as she was. Not a coward, Doctor Kapoor would say… that reminded her, she still needed to reschedule Thor’s appointment on Friday.

She lifted Comet into her arms, most easily done with the help of kitten treats. Jane may be the kitten’s best friend, but that didn’t mean Comet forgot all zans cat smarts once there was a little chin-tickling.

“Hey, everyone,” Jane tried to smile when she walked back into the kitchen. She nodded at Laura and Clint, but before anyone could try to pat Comet, set the kitten down on the floor where it vanished in a glow through the backdoor. Meteor jumped from Thor’s shoulder and followed zans sibling.

“Sorry,” she said to the girls. “The cats are really shy. Too many new people at once scare them. They’re called Comet and Meteor, by the way, and they’re neither male nor female.”

The kids merely nodded, not looking disappointed at all. Jane credited this to them growing up at a farm, where they would naturally learn a lot about animals, not all of them tame.

“Only you would build a cat door that was a wormhole,” Natasha snarled into Jane’s ear.

Innocently she said, “What wormhole? Nobody can build such a thing, that’s impossible.” And if someone did, it wouldn’t be a good idea to let the whole world know. The cats, however, could handle the technology responsibly.

With Betty cutting up muffins and cupcakes for the new guests, Nick pouring more tea and everyone busy making space for them at the kitchen table, Jane used the general hubbub to steal herself away toward the door. Thor had strategically placed himself there, and she used the invitation to hide behind him.

“I’ll be in the lab,” she said quietly.

He bent down for a quick little kiss. “Don’t forget dinner. And text me if you want me to come back.”

“I won’t,” Jane snarled. “You’re supposed to go out with your friends and have fun, remember?”

“If this is about dinner,” Nick murmured so only the two of them could hear him, “you can come over to my house in about two hours.”

Jane rolled her eyes. “Is this another one of Mother’s tries to have me look at wedding dresses?” This was a little cruel, given that Beatrice had only contacted her about charity issues of late – her mother threw herself fully into the task of finding homes for absolutely everyone. Jane had never thought Beatrice to be such an unexpected hippie. Unless… “You haven’t gotten yourself secretly married, have you?”

Nick chuckled. “Your mom is not here, no. Though she may visit over the weekend.”

Jane growled in reply. That should suffice for an answer.

She sneaked out of the kitchen behind Nick’s and Thor’s broad backs and was in her laboratory before one could have said “gravitational anomaly”. Silence. Blessed, peaceful silence.

It felt as if she had only just woken her computers out of standby when there was a knock at the door. Natasha did not wait for an answer, she simply walked in, snapped Jane’s laptop shut, and pulled her out of her chair.

“Hey!” Jane protested.

“Did you read the seven e-mails I’ve sent you the last thirty minutes? There.”

Oh well. That probably was a reason to become a bit more direct.

Jane followed Nat all the way down the downstairs hallway – when the sight of the living room made her stop. So that was why it was so quiet in the house.

“That’s so cute,” Jane giggled at the sight of Pietro, Wanda, Darcy and Gamora all curled up together on the biggest sofa, sound asleep. Tony was hectically scratching around on a tablet and didn’t even look up, but Pepper, a novel in her hands, shushed at Jane. Nat took the hint and pulled her along.

“Honestly, where did you get that intern?” Natasha snarled quietly as Darcy gave off a little meowing, snuggling deeper into a plush pillow.

“I advertised, she showed up,” Jane said. “She was the only one, too.”

“And you don’t find that a bit odd? Or that there’s absolutely nothing known about her?”

“She has some sort of amnesia,” Jane replied. “At least that’s what she said, and I believe her.”

“Can’t deny or confirm that, doctor and all,” Helen munched behind them. She had just been about to carry a platter of biscuits to the salon. “But in general, if that helps, she’s not a liar.”

“See?” Jane shrugged.

Carrying another platter heaped with sandwiches in one hand and a big thermos of hot chocolate in the other, Sif said, “You should know better than to try separating Jane from her Darcy.”

“Exactly,” Jane nodded. She could take care of herself, and of Darcy as well.

Someone had thoughtfully left a plate of sandwiches for her in the kitchen. Jane read the note, written in Thor’s geometric hand, caught herself blushing and, with a grin from ear to ear, slipped the carefully folded piece of paper into the pocket of her jeans. She had a handful of similar ones in a little box on the completely cluttered desk in her lab.

“Just so you know,” Nat said, fetching a half-full bottle of wine from the refrigerator, “the big upstairs bathroom is mine for the next two hours. Wait, is that camembert? Make that three.”

“It doesn’t matter if Darcy really doesn’t know, or if she has reasons not to talk about it. If she wants my help, she’ll get it.”

Even in the gloom of the otherwise empty kitchen, Natasha’s expression was so clearly visible, it seemed to be a hologram the air. She vanished upstairs without another word, and Jane wouldn’t see her again for the next hours indeed – the same went for the camembert.

It was long after midnight, the twins and the Potts had already retired and the Bartons awoken from their jet-lag, when Natasha’s fluffy head reappeared in the salon door.

“Darlings, I know it’s late and all, but I think I’m gonna win tabloid headline bingo tomorrow.”

Jane raised an eyebrow.

“With what line?”

“’Avengers on roof sing terribly out of tune with alien cows’.”

Jane sighed. Birdie the space-calf had managed to open the upstairs backdoor again.

“Well… Steve wanted us to form a football team, so how about a choir, too?”

“Come on, darling,” they heard Sif say to Gamora, putting an arm around her and lifting her up from the sofa as if she weighed no more than a cushion. “They’re singing our song.”

Together they left for the staircase. Jane returned to the living room, gently shaking Darcy’s shoulder. She may not know when her birthday was, but this was surely a present Darcy wouldn’t dislike. She heard Nat sigh in the hallway:

“Hard to believe that that tipsy baritone is an _author_ now.”

“And a scientist!” Jane yelled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters with so many characters are terribly complicated to write, especially when characters change places and you need them to return for a scene.


	39. Chapter 39

Time went by so quickly when one had fun – and with all the world-saving and universe-exploring, a bit of science on the side (rather on all sides and sites), fun was certainly to be had. Much sooner than she would have dreamed, Jane was facing the challenge of looking forward to not looking forward to her very own wedding. Two of those, to be precise, on two different planets. Which only meant that Jane was twice as eager on skipping as many of the preparations as she could.

The good thing was that they did have more time now. People around the world had taken the hint of helping each other, so the Avengers weren’t called to quite so many places anymore, and usually had an easier time, too. Just last week, Jane and Gamora had gone to the world of the Darkelves to check if the last handful of them did alright. They trusted Jane much more than she’d have expected, especially after she had used her Infinity Gem to transform the planet according to their needs, making it much easier to live on for them. She still had a guilty conscience after everything that had happened with Malekith, in some way. Gamora understood such things.

What Jane would never get used to were book signings. Thor had insisted on having her name on his work on mathematics, with almost all the editing being hers and because it had been her idea in the first place – his point of view, not hers. In Jane’s opinion, she hadn’t done much more than proofreading of a draft or four… fourteen. But the book had been an instant bestseller and was still selling at record speed, the first print having become a rarity after mere weeks. As critics put it, the text was a ground-breaking redefinition of how to understand mathematics for absolutely everyone, and as such had opened quite a few discussions on the topic. At least about this, Jane had a lot to say, and she didn’t mind doing so to the press. That was better than the endless questions about her private life, or the photoshoots Darcy kept scheduling, no matter how cool the photos tended to turn out nor how high-profile the magazines were for which they made them. The twins kept accepting model jobs now and then, although lately it had started to bore them.

When it came to Jane herself, the journalists certainly had enough things to ask, for her website had become just as much of a hit as a resource for astronomers, astrophysicists, and whoever else was interested – and a lot of people were, these days, science being the new cool and all. The site didn’t just offer Jane’s collected research for free, it was also the only source for whatever her telescopes and sensors had found on every other world she had ever visited, and counting. For this she did take credit, always pointing out that a lot of the technical things were Darcy’s work – everything from the website itself to carrying tripods as heavy as Jane through half the universe. Nobody could really explain how Darcy did that, in addition to all her other tasks on several planets. Jane had tried, gravity bending space bending time and all, but she was quite sure to be on the wrong track with her theory. It had made for a nice blog discussion though, before Darcy closed it.

Speaking of Darcy…

“Wow. Not even your complaints can wake her up,” Wanda said, pinning a seam on the dress Jane was wearing. While her brother had taken up an apprenticeship as a builder (someone had to actually know how a house was built, he had said), Wanda turned out to be a fashion genius with a long history of hand-sewing most of the clothes her family had possessed. She had quickly started to supply all of the Avengers and associates with breathtaking outfits, resulting in Pepper sitting down with her one day to talk very seriously about establishing Wanda’s own fashion label. Needless to say that it was a hit, especially whenever Wanda collaborated with Darcy’s habit of embroidering fine decorations onto everything that was somehow made of fabric. Bit of a nuisance in case of Jane’s dusting cloths.

“Chocolate cookies!” Jane sang, but Darcy didn’t move. “Wow. She must be really tired.”

“Let her sleep, huh? It’s not like she’s getting a lot of rest when she’s yelling at Loki.”

At Wanda’s last word, Darcy’s eyes snapped open.

“Yup, here, ready.” She jumped to her feet. “Are we dancing now? Great. Where did you put my dancing partner, and who’s my chocolate cookie? I mean – you know what I mean.”

With Darcy already halfway out of the room, Jane quickly shrugged out of the dress, managing to be pricked by no more than two of the needles pinning up the seam. She was supposed to wear this garment at a charity thing in about a week’s time. Ew. She’d happily have preferred twenty dress fittings if she didn’t have to go. Okay, ten dress fittings. Maybe five.

Wrapped in comfortable jogging trousers, t-shirt and sweater, Jane followed Wanda out of the fashion workshop into which Wanda’s room turned whenever she visited Jane and Thor. The others had already gathered in one of the rooms left empty so far. It was sizable enough to make for a tolerable dancing studio.

“Why didn’t you stop me before I could promise Beatrice to take dancing lessons?” Jane sighed as she always did before they went to their dancing lesson.

“Why do you call your mother by her first name? Not very respectful,” Wanda replied as she always did before they went to their dancing lesson.

It had been rather easy to get trapped in Beatrice’s schemes, Jane thought. Basically, her mother had given her a list of things a lady should be capable of before her wedding and allowed her to choose three of the points. To Jane’s own surprise, table manners had been easiest – she blamed shoved-away childhood memories of similar lessons. Number two, horseback riding, had been a disaster because Jane felt so much for the horse that she volunteered to walk, and number three was this: decent ballroom dancing.

The others had already assembled, except for Rhodey, Pepper, Tony and Bruce, who had other things to do. Sam stood in the middle of the room, nodding at Wanda and Jane as they stepped inside. Whichever magic had been at play (Jane suspected Nick of having his part in this), Beatrice had been completely fine with Sam giving the lessons, so long as she could be sure that all of her daughter’s friends would make a fine figure on the wedding dance floor. Jane didn’t doubt that to happen at all, whilst she was very sure to stumble over her own feet on her very way out of the registry office. She planned to pretend a sprained ankle and have herself carried all the rest of the day by her gorgeous husband. It would look nice in the wedding album, too.

“Hey Wanda,” Sam said, “have fun.”

“Will do,” Wanda replied and walked over to where Natasha waited. After a lot of begging from Wanda and big kitten eyes from Jay, who had discovered her taste for dancing with Sam, Nat had agreed to teach them both a bit of ballet.

Sam nodded at Jane. “Hey there, how’s the beads?”

“Eight out of ten,” she said quietly. Just as quietly, Sam replied:

“Alright. If you feel nine approaching, you take a break.”

“Will do.”

The beads had been Darcy’s invention. While she and Thor had a natural talent for knowing when Jane was about to snap from too much stress, too little sleep, someone always leaving the bins open and whatever else out there got on her nerves, she had wanted a more visible indicator for the others and something less obvious than whining “poptarts”. At first they had used a small jar into which Jane had poured red beads the more stressed-out she felt, but that was impractical and, frankly, a bit silly. Finally, during a jewellery-making-session with the whole team (Bucky had turned out a natural talent at designing earrings), Darcy had come up with a small beaded bracelet. There was a string of ten very fine beads in the middle, cornered by two large beads at each end. Another ring-shaped bead could be drawn over the smaller ones to indicate, on a scale from one to ten, how Jane felt.

It was needless to assume that Jane was the only Avenger with issues, nor the only one with people supporting her. Even the tabloids knew now that Thor regularly consulted a therapist after he had written a small piece for Darcy’s blog about it, and Sam used all the media attention he could get to talk about his experiences of dealing with PTSD and counselling groups. If anything, statements such as this had gotten the Avengers only more fans.

It had taken mere minutes until all the others in their cosy crafting round had started to copy Darcy’s bracelet idea, and now tended to quickly flash their wrists at each other when they wanted to say they weren’t alright. Genius.

While Jane walked over to where Thor stood, Sam said loudly so everyone could hear him: “Alright, remember what we said: make sure you get enough rest or drop out if that’s easier for you. It’s been a long day, and this should be relaxing for you, not even more stressful.”

That was true. They had all been recording a talk show together almost all day, and that hadn’t been a piece of cake for any of them. Actually, there hadn’t even been cake at the buffet. Not what Jane called cake, anyway.

“Only half an hour, okay?” Jane heard Nat say to Jay and Wanda. “My old battle scars are acting up.” She held up a pinkie around which a tiny band-aid had been taped. “Paper cut.”

“I may have a cure for that,” Helen chirped from the other side of the room.

Bucky added, “It includes slugs and dancing around a broomstick on the backyard lawn at midnight.”

That earned him Helen’s elbow in his side, plus a big “you deserved that” grin from Steve. With a slightly insulted “ouch” Bucky took this as his signal for walking over to the middle of the room, looking back at Steve and Helen. Both shook their heads. Bucky shrugged and offered his arm to Darcy, who gracefully took it, having herself whirled around in a graceful spiral before coming to a halt and assuming dancing position.

“Look who’s here!” Betty announced as she came into the room, ushering in Mrs and Mr Gupta. They had agreed to show the youngsters, as they said, some of their old skills.

“Hello everyone!” Mr Gupta said. “What shall we start with?”

Sam replied, “We wanted to do something easy today. Just a bit of waltzing, to relax a little.”

“Well, I don’t know about waltzing, haven’t done that in years,” Mrs Gupta said, “but who’s in for a nice tango?”

The majority, as it seemed.

Without needing much more than a glance at her face to know what was going on – a bit of waltzing having been just-so on the verge of possible for Jane, but not learning a whole new dance, and one as exhausting as tango – Thor led her over to the wall before anyone could boat into them.

“Why aren’t you two dancing?” Thor asked as they ended up next to Helen and Steve. Just this once, Jane felt that this wasn’t a good question, and to her own great surprise, she was right.

“I’m just waiting for his invitation,” Helen shrugged, at which Steve made the face of a kicked puppy.

“Maybe you should discuss that later, on your own?” Jane tried to help, not sure if she was making it worse.

Steve sighed. “I’m so sorry, Helen, it’s just because…”

“Peggy!” Helen whispered, her eyes wide. “She said something about dancing when we visited her. I thought she meant you and me dancing… sorry, Steve, I really didn’t want to stir that up.”

“No, no, I’m sorry, I really am,” he said, taking her hands. Jane wished everyone stopped saying sorry and instead talked properly to each other. “It’s this thing… I promised her we’d dance before I… before the ice.”

Fortunately Mrs Gupta had started her tango CD, so nobody noticed much of the embarrassed pause that statement caused, nor of Thor yelling (subtly so, which meant the common level of noise a very loud human could produce):

“You promised her and then you _never made true of it_?”

Jane’s hand on his arm held Thor back. She gave him a _look_.

“I came back after two years,” Thor said, quickly backpedalling. “And I’ve hoped to have made up for it since.”

“We shall discuss that tonight,” she said. It was a bit cruel, but then, yelling at Steve had been, too. Being mad at Steve was like being mad at a scrawny little kitten, if that kitten wore a superhero suit.

“Go visit her, dance with her!” Thor said at a more civil level of tone.

Steve replied frantically, “She’s sick, she’s frail, I live in constant fear that the next day is the day I get a phone call that she’s passed on.”

“Then carry her, for fate’s sake! While you still have the time!”

“I can help, I’m a doctor,” Helen said quietly, awkwardly patting Steve’s arm. He turned to look at her as if he had forgotten that she was even there. Jane wondered what Helen’s profession had to do with it all, unless she was now specialising in taking care of the elderly, before noticing that Helen was probably just trying to calm down Steve.

“Right,” he said, suddenly looking almost hopeful. “Right, I’ll call Sharon – that’s her granddaughter – used to be my neighbour – she was at SHIELD’s – it’s complicated…”

“But maybe, before you dash off just like that tonight, you should practise,” Jane interrupted him. “Don’t want to embarrass yourself, do you?”

“Right…”

“Shall we?” Helen blinked with a smile that Jane, without any trace of envy, was sure she had practised in front of the mirror for at least ten years. It looked perfect enough to justify the effort.

“If you don’t mind…”

“Oh, I insist.”

Together they went to the dance floor, where the Guptas were performing a dashing tango. Everyone watched until the song ended, and after a well-deserved applause, Mr and Mrs Gupta started to walk around, teaching the steps to the other couples. To Jane’s pride, Helen and Steve looked wonderful, especially when after about twenty minutes the music switched back to waltzes.

“Do you mind if I go to bed?” Jane asked. She didn’t want Thor to skip the dance for her sake, and he wouldn’t have a problem finding another partner. Jay and Natasha would be available in a moment’s time.

Thor said, “Not if you allow me to come with you.”

They wished the Guptas a good night, nodded at Sam, and went down to the upstairs corridor together.

It was wonderfully quiet here. Jane had to admit that one reason why she disliked the dancing practices was that everyone insisted on terribly loud music. Speaking of someone being quiet…

“You couldn’t know about Peggy,” she said. “And Steve’s gonna be alright. More than alright. He’s gotta stop brooding, really. He’s got a life of his own and he’s gotta live it.”

Thor turned from where he had stood at the washing basin – shirtless, Jane couldn’t help but notice – and looked at her.

“Would you mind if I proposed to you?” he asked.

“… what?”

A small smile crept onto his worried face. “I never proposed to you properly, did I?”

Jane wrung her brain what the hell was wrong now.

“Yeah, but… I thought your people didn’t do that.” Had been mighty grateful for the fact, too.

“We don’t. But yours do do, and it feels apt to… I would like to propose to you.” He quickly combed his hair back into a ponytail. It was growing again, but wasn’t long enough yet to stay out of his face. “It was just an idea, the spur of a moment – I haven’t thought about it properly, I am sorry.”

She sighed. Pulled her sweatshirt over her head and walked over to him, so as to hug his middle.

“I wish we were already married,” Jane mumbled. All those ceremonies, all the efforts, just so that two people could sign a piece of paper…

“You don’t want me to propose then?”

Had he betted to use that word five times in a row or what?

“We’ve talked about this. I don’t want an engagement ring,” Jane said. “The rest is pretty much all the same to me as long as…” She tucked a strand of Thor’s half-long hair back behind his ear. “As long as it’s what you want. I can enjoy that.”

He smiled, bending down to kiss her. Jane was about to lean into his arms when –

“But don’t hide a ring in anything edible,” she warned, a finger on his lips. “Because I’m just gonna eat it.”

Thor laughed.

“I shall take care to be respectful, especially to the food.”

He was a good man after all.

* * *

Dancing, of all things. Darcy had had to wait for long after midnight until she could finally sneak out of the house, and only because she had assured Wanda that the embroidery on Jane’s dress would be done in the morning. It wouldn’t. She just really, really needed a break.

It wouldn’t be difficult to pretend that fatigue had made her sleep through half the night, keeping her from her needlework. She could have dropped into slumber where she stood, as always, and just as always, that was exactly what she wanted to prevent. Even with a house full of people, the loneliness was worst in her own room, at night. She had to leave the nightmares behind, and so she did, now.

The portal had opened for her as it always did, to another dimension, another world, whatever Jane would call it. Darcy hadn’t been down here, in the cave with its forest of eternal spring, for… how long? Must have been years, and yet nothing looked changed. She wondered if Loki’s footprint where she had made him stumble into the mud was still there. Just over there, behind the little clearing…

“Looking for an evening’s entertainment, my Lady?”

Not just the footprint, the boot and everything else, too.

“Have you been following me?” she snarled. “Wait. ‘Course you have.”

“Maybe I was longing for your company.”

“You could’ve had that easily tomorrow when I come up to go through the arrangements of –“

“Your company and yours alone.”

Darcy sighed. Why had she come to this place? If she wanted to be miserable on her own, she could have stayed at Jane’s.

“I heard that you are practising dancing, for the wedding,” Loki said in conversational tone, taking her hand in passing as if it were the most common gesture in the world.

“Yeah, but I opted out after the tango,” Darcy shrugged. “It’s getting boring.” She knew most of the dances either way, and only participated to help Sam. It had looked funny when he had tried to teach Thor the foxtrot.

“That is a pity. I had hoped you could show me,” Loki said, stepping closer to her. When it came to flirting, he deserved the title Captain Obvious. Although –

“Don’t tell me you want to be invited to the wedding on Earth!” Darcy snapped. She wouldn’t have all her careful plans for the seating arrangements thrown into chaos just because Mister Ego Problem Of The Sixteenth Century (and probably every year ever since) suddenly wanted to attend both parties.

“Fate beware,” Loki replied, for once not sounding like a pot of honey when teddy bears were around. “However, I have been thinking about introducing this sort of dancing to court. As a novelty.”

“Sure. It’s worth a try.”

A faint music started to play. Darcy had to admit that it was beautiful, a delicate melody of little bells, strings, and sounds she couldn’t quite place.

“Wow. You’ve been all over iTunes for this, haven’t you?”

She turned to show him the basic position for an easy slow-dance and found that he was perfectly prepared. Gently Loki started to move, giving her the directions, but being ever so tender not to drag her along. Even his ridiculous cape stayed at respectful distance.

Why did he always have to be so distant?

“So why did you come back?” Darcy asked. She may have moved like a scarecrow in Loki’s self-conscious grasp, tired as she was, but that didn’t mean her brain was made of sawdust.

“Come back where?”

“Here, Mister Pretend-I-don’t-know-what-we-both-very-well-know-you’re-talking-about.”

Loki blinked, very quickly, but she saw it.

“I was longing for company, I said so.”

“For my company. Suddenly I’m good enough for you again.”

She almost saw the steam coming out of his ears at that, but nonetheless, Loki did not break their gentle dancing pattern.

“You were the one who ran away,” he managed to growl quietly. “After I said that I had searched high and low for a way to make you immortal.”

“You’re not immortal.”

“That doesn’t mean you cannot be.” After a moment of breathless silence, he added: “I have not ceased to seek. I will find you an Infinity Gem, if I must.”

The music had ended. They stood facing each other, too close for conversational comfort. Was he still using any hair wax at all? Damn, he was serious about the whole flirtation thing, wasn’t he?

“And have you thought about asking me if I’m okay with that?” Darcy said, sounding far too quiet for her own liking.

He bent down, slowly, his hands suddenly caressing her face, so gentle. “I wanted to wait until I had a base for my argumentation.”

His lips were so cool, his cold hands like balm on her heated face. To hell with common sense, everyone kept insisting that she take a break. She leant against Loki, one of his arms grasping her, pulling her into the distance he had kept so long. If only it weren’t just physically so.

“I gotta be back in the morning,” she said as Loki took one of her hands and put his other arm around the small of her back, guiding her away from the clearing. “Jane has this tree planting holiday coming up.” A house full of superheroes, and yet Darcy was the only one who could tell if a sapling stood a bit lopsided.

“Send Jane a message that your qualities are otherwise required.”

“Even Jane would interpret that the wrong way.”

Darcy could already see the headline in front of her inner eye: “Renowned scientist plants lopsided tree”.

* * *

Oh, she was beautiful when she slept. He would never, never tell her so, not in four thousand years, Loki swore to himself, because he would never, never share this moment with anyone. Not even with Darcy.

“How can your outfit look so perfect?” she snarled drowsily. So much for that.

After their dance, Loki had shown her one of his favourite places in these caves: the lands of winter. Spring was beautiful, certainly, summer full of life and autumn ever so dramatic, but nothing compared to the lands of snow. Glittering, colourful ice covering woods and meadows, and beyond those, an underground lake so large one could not see from one end to the other.

“Magic,” he shrugged.

“Cheater.”

Still so tired, his Darcy. Always up and awake, always busy with something. She did look quite uncombed the way she tried to sit up on the base of a tree branching out almost exactly over the ground, thus forming a comfortable plateau onto which Loki had spread his cape for both of them.

“Oh, but I intend to share my magic.”

At the snip of his fingers, her ruffled clothes turned into a long, silvery-white dress, glittering with jewels from collar to hem. Darcy did not even stop as she glided off the tree and into the snow, but he caught her glimpsing at herself. Yes, she looked breathtaking in some decent garments instead of the terrible Earth stuff she wore all the time, but he did not need to tell her so either. Darcy was observant enough to know.

As of now, her attention lay on other beauty than her own. The fog over the lake had finally lifted, and in the gloom small islands, fully covered in snow, could be seen between reeds encrusted with ice.

He could have told her to stop, and did not because, like him, she would not. Darcy did not look back at him once as she went down to the shore, a picture of elegance. Her bare feet – how could she not be cold – gingerly touched the icy water, and after the first step, nothing could hold her at the shore.

The lake was so shallow that Darcy walked to the first island without the water rising any higher than her knees, short as she was. The inhabitants of the islands, however, turned out much shorter still.

Even the vast libraries Loki had grown up in could not describe all creatures in the universe, and they certainly held no description of the foot-high humanoids, entirely white with large black eyes and small mouths. In a rare bout of humour, Loki had baptised them ice gnomes. They were harmless, a little curious, but altogether rather shy. They did not talk or squeak or growl, they just stood, looking at visitors as if they had never seen any before – which may very well be the case.

He followed Darcy at a distance. She was so absorbed in the magnificence of the landscape around her and its odd creatures that she did not pay attention to anyone or anything else, and as much as Loki could understand that notion from his own wanderings, with Darcy he stayed wary of the twofold nature places as old and magical as this one held. Where there was life, there would be the opposite, where there was peace, there could be hidden horrors. The ancient worlds, held together by wild magic, were no place for modern beings such as humans.

Darcy sat down in the snow of one of the larger islands. With interest did she look at the tiny gnomes standing around her, some not as high as a hand was long, but he could see her eyelids droop. Slowly Darcy lay down in the snow, and just as slowly the gnomes approached her, starting to nudge little handfuls of the soft ice crystals over her shape. This was when he stepped in.

Summoning a warming spell, Loki lifted Darcy up into his arms. She was sleeping, only a little cool, and would wake up well-rested and warm in her own home. The lands of winter could provide a the calmest, deepest slumber, but as it was with magic as old as this, it was a slumber so long he would not grant it to her. Not yet. There were still many springs to come for Darcy, that he had sworn to himself. Someone had to plant the trees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers taking dancing lessons together is something I'd love to see in one of Marvel's next movies.


	40. Chapter 40

“Are you sure this letter is not actually meant for you?” Thor asked, holding up a piece of paper featuring the old-fashioned logo of the around-the-corner university. It was a small place, so everything was a little smaller, too, but nonetheless present.

Jane glanced at the letter for about the fifth time, saying for at least the seventh time: “No, has your name on it.”

“But why would they want me to lecture? You are the scientist.”

Jane tried not to sigh. There was a series of articles about Einstein-Rosen-Bridges she really needed to finish for her website, not to mention the annotations, and the essays resulting out of those annotations…

“Because you’ve written a highly intelligent book on mathematics and someone drew the conclusion that you know something about the stuff?” she replied.

To be fair, they had asked her, too. Quite often. Those e-mails and letters had been amongst the many Jane had ignored for the past years.

“Maybe… I need to think about this,” Thor said. “Or do I have to answer immediately?”

Jane rose onto her toes, loosely putting her arms around his neck and kissing the tip of his nose as he bent down to hold her. “Take all the time you need.”

“Maybe we could just not tell anyone yet…?” he asked carefully.

Jane nodded.

“We could go meet whoever’s in charge, ask what exactly they’d like you to do, maybe you could look at a lecture and see if you could do that,” she shrugged, adding with a little smirk: “You’re not scared, are you?”

“Scared? I?” he grinned back, grasping for her, but Jane was already out of the kitchen. They chased each other through the house, all two and a half floors, playing quite the game of catch – until Darcy’s salon door opened and the inhabitant stepped out, clad quite impressively in a tartan dressing robe (a gift from Nick), matching night cap (not Nick’s idea) and a pair of brand new plush slippers shaped like dragons. It had been the only way for Jane to get her unicorn slippers back, at least whenever Jay wasn’t on Earth:

“It’s half past ten in the morning, would you two kindly stop this noise?”

“Sorry, Darcy,” Thor said with the face the kittens usually showed when they had once again been caught in one of their attempts at art involving the unread newspaper.

“Sorry for existing,” Jane growled under her pout as they went downstairs again, very quietly this time. Above, the door had closed.

“She seems a little better these days,” Thor mused as they sat down in the library together, having brought a fresh pot of tea from the kitchen.

Jane scoffed, “Yeah, she’s really sweet these days.” While Darcy had indeed appeared a little less exhausted during the past weeks, that only meant she was back to shape in snarling at whoever disturbed her well-deserved slumber. At least she went out much more again, so she wasn’t around much at night.

“Shakespeare? Again?” Jane growled after she had read the obligatory two pages in her own book, after which she tended to feel too energetic for such a static activity.

Thor smiled, not looking up from the pages, “A favourite I have not read in a while.” He drew her close while saying so, and although he offered Jane the book, she preferred snuggling into his shirt. Why were there no books about that? Fictional characters doing nothing but dozing, snuggling and napping on three hundred pages, awesome story.

Always, always, the best moments were interrupted when it had just been so nice, or maybe that was because dozing with Thor’s sweatshirts for a pillow while he still wore them was nicer than most things. Jane woke out of her slumber at the sound of quite a bit of a commotion from the hallway.

As she went to see what was going on, a Jay-shaped shadow, fully feathered, rushed past her and up the stairs. A door was thrown into its lock audibly, and shortly after that, an exhausted Natasha and Wanda appeared in the corridor.

“How was –“

“Isn’t that obvious?” Natasha said.

Wanda added, “A clear ten on the bracelet scale.”

They had been to a ballet school to audition for lessons for Wanda and Jay. Wanda had had lessons for many years and therefore a lot of knowledge, while Jay was so intuitive that she picked up whatever she was taught immediately. Nat, big sister she had become, had suggested them both to a dancing school of good reputation that offered advanced courses.

Jane asked incredulously, “They didn’t accept you?”

“They accepted _me_ ,” Wanda said, throwing her sports bag to the ground, “and I can’t do half the dancing figures or steps she can. No human could.”

That was true. Being a gigantic alien bird, Jay could dance like nobody else. She was fast, she was precise, she instinctively knew how to move in the rhythm of music, whether she was given a choreography or no. Jane couldn’t understand how –

“ _Jane Foster_!” Darcy’s voice boomed from above the staircase. “If you don’t keep the noise down as of now – I know where you hide the Nutella jar!”

Jane shouted back, “You can’t touch it, I’ve written physics formulas all over it!” Everything in her ached to right the injustice, for it had been Jay’s noise, but she could hold herself back.

“And is that supposed to work as some kind of magical ban?” Darcy snarled.

“It’s worth a try!”

“Scientists…” she could hear Darcy mutter to herself before her salon door fell shut once again.

“Should we look after Jay?” Jane asked Thor, who had appeared silently behind her. For someone that huge, he shouldn’t be so quiet, but then, so were tigers.

He nodded. “She shouldn’t be alone now.”

“Okay.”

Together they went up the stairs, but not before Thor had fetched his tablet PC from the library. In moments like this, Jane was particularly aware of how much she loved him. That she could simply ask him what to do when she wasn’t sure about someone else’s feelings, and that he simply replied in ways she could understand without making any kind of fuss. Just the way he could ask her things about the human world, and she would reply with just what he wanted to know. After all, he couldn’t know, and she couldn’t know either. It was so simple, and yet Jane had never met someone with so much patience for her… no. Lack of arrogance. That was it.

“Jay? Sweetheart?” Jane asked carefully at the door. There was no reply, but Thor nodded, so she slowly pushed down the handle and looked inside. “Can we come in?” she asked.

The little dragon – no, wasn’t she a bird now? – sat huddled up in the darkest corner of the suite, which had been hard to find, given how airy this place was. She did not reply to Jane’s question, but nodded through her sobs. Jane followed Thor as he carefully approached his cousin, sitting down on the floor and, after waiting for Jay’s permission, put an arm around her shoulders. Jane didn’t quite know what she could do, so she just sat down on the other side.

“Are you praying?” Thor asked.

“Atoning,” Jay said. “For my wrath, and my pride. I should have known I wasn’t good enough and everything would have been easier.”

“But you _are_ good enough!” Jane burst out. “And you know I don’t lie!”

“It’s nice of you to think so,” Jay said quietly, “but four ballet trainers of reputation can’t be that wrong, can they?”

Jane frowned. “What did they say?”

“What?”

“Why did they reject you? For your dancing, or…”

“Because they’re assholes,” Wanda said from the door. “Because we’re not the way they think a ballerina should look, at least that’s what they would think about me too if they knew my heritage.”

Jay hid her face in her hands. “I know I’m ugly, but I thought –“

“For the last time, you’re _not ugly_!” Natasha spat. “They keep rejecting you because you’re an alien. Probably because you’re amazing, too.”

“I don’t understand it.”

“Nobody in their right mind would,” Jane said quietly. As it seemed, ballet and academics weren’t too different. Out of a spur of inspiration – it was what Thor would do – she put an arm around Wanda, the other around Nat, and to Jane’s surprise, both leant against her.

“Are you really sure ballet schools are worth the frustration?” she asked.

“Is there another way of learning how to dance?” Jay said.

Thor said absentmindedly, his fingers dancing over the surface of his tablet PC, “Why would you still learn? You know how to dance. Everything else you can figure out yourself.”

The screen in his hands gave off a small signal, and a moment later Sam’s sleepy voice could be heard via video chat.

“Morning,” he yawned.

Smiling amusedly, Thor replied, “And a good morning to you. Is it your day off?”

Obviously it was, Jane thought. Otherwise Sam wouldn’t have been at home.

“Why?” Sam growled. He may be a teddy bear most days, but even his patience grew thin with the likes of the other Avengers waking him up at all times of night and day, not to mention jet-lags. Jane quickly tried to remember if she still had that box of cupcakes in the refrigerator, which was not very likely with Nat and Wanda around, but she would check. She was quite sure to know what Thor had in mind.

Thor asked, “Would you mind a visitor for breakfast?” He looked at Wanda, Jane and Natasha, silently asking if they wanted to go, too, but they all shook their heads.

“Visitor?” Bucky asked with remarkable verve from behind Sam’s shoulder. He had had to spend such a lot of time at home that every distraction was gold to him. “Is Jay coming?”

They all ignored the small yowl from Jay’s direction.

“What’s happened?” Sam asked in alarm, suddenly wide awake.

“Jay needs a hug,” Wanda said, inching a bit closer to Jane and snuggling against her shoulder. Not quite comfortable, but then, Wanda seemed to need that hug, too. Nat always needed hugs, Steve had explained quietly once when the aforementioned hadn’t been around.

“What’s the matter?” they heard Steve shout from the kitchen.

Helen walked past, or rather, her hair did, as she was too short to be visible on the screen. “We’re getting a visitor! Put another plate on the table and whatever bacon you have left in a frying pan!” she shouted back.

“Morning, Helen!” Jane said, arching her neck although it wouldn’t enable her to see Helen any better either.

“Morning!” Helen smiled, apparently rising to her feet so she could look at the phone or whatever Sam was holding. Jane saw Bucky reach over Sam’s shoulder so he’d lower his arm.

“Alright,” Helen said, “how quickly can you be over? ‘Cause that bacon isn’t going to be around for long.”

* * *

Very quickly, as Helen had found out that morning. It had been her day off, too – not that anyone at Stark’s cared for when she did so – and the guys had invited her over for breakfast, which Helen had accepted within quite exactly 0.23 seconds. Only then had she realised what that meant: getting up at least three hours earlier, full home spa treatment, the fancier of her two favourite hairstyles, her good make-up (she had finally opted for lip butter instead of lipstick) and a good ninety minutes choosing her outfit. Of the five possible combinations she had prepared the night before, which had only taken her about four hours.

It had been a wonderful morning. Crisp and clear, the sky tinged in shades of pastels… just when she had arrived at the front door of where Sam, Steve and Bucky lived, no more than forty-five minutes late because the guys knew she always needed longer and gave her very early meeting times, Helen had noticed that it must have rained at night. She did so because the taxi driving away had splattered her from head to toe with muddy water from a puddle the volume of a bathtub. Another reason not to over-tip.

Without the slightest traces of make-up left in her face, hair in wet tangles from the shower Sam had offered to her immediately and wearing one of his sweatshirts (Sam was the only one who had a shirt in a small enough size, for whatever reason), Helen had settled down with the others for breakfast. Jay had arrived via wormhole, and the food had arrived from the kitchen followed by Steve looking unfairly gorgeous with his tousled morning-hair and slightly too tight t-shirt. Bucky had explained that too small clothes happened to him, too, a memory of having been smaller not too long ago in his mind. Helen would never have thought of complaining, although she asked if that wouldn’t have been small enough for her to borrow one of Steve’s shirts…? Although Helen visited a lot, and although this wasn’t the first time she had been surprised by unfortunate weathers, nobody had offered her to leave some of her own clothes in the flat yet. Somehow she doubted that this would happen… luckily.

Breakfast was nice. Everyone looked dishevelled, and everyone tried to steal food from the others’ plates, mostly through distracting them with uncalled-for comments about their eating behaviour. Helen had little idea about what had happened to Jay to make her so sad that she needed a weekend with the bird band, as Tony called Steve, Sam and Bucky, but as the actual bird at the table quickly regained her spirits over a few whispered words with Sam and a true mountain of bacon on her plate (which did not get cold), Helen did not want to pry.

“So,” Steve said, leaning back in his chair when the last crumbs had been picked, and not without a lot of shoving, “what do you want to do today?”

Although the Avengers were not quite as busy anymore, weekends such as this with everyone home stayed rare, a circumstance they all hoped to improve that by the end of the year, for when Jane’s and Thor’s wedding was scheduled. In consequence, they were little used to finding things to do at such a precious occasion.

“Museum?” Bucky asked. It’s what he always said. He had once admitted that it was because Steve had always dragged him into every art gallery he could find, so he simply had no other ideas.

“Movies?” Steve suggested. Helen tried not to be too sure that he had glanced in her direction when he said so. She wouldn’t mind sitting next to him.

“Lindy hop dance?” Sam smirked at Jay. Her face brightened up, and not just metaphorically. Jay’s Infinity Gem tended to align with her moods. Helen wondered if Jay needed a reading light, as long as the book was any good.

“Yes! Thank you!” Bucky exclaimed, thumping his hand on the table. Jay nodded fervently at Sam. The latter had introduced them all to the sport, after Steve had finally had his dance with Peggy. Helen hadn’t been around for that one, although she accompanied him on his visits once in a while, and she had never asked how it had been.

Steve said carefully, “Helen?”

“Uhm…” She felt her face turn a deep shade of red. “I – I can’t dance lindy hop swing.”

“Nonsense,” Bucky said, “everybody can dance swing. It’s not science.”

Sam grinned, “Maybe that’s the problem.”

It was true. Helen was happy enough being able to manage standard dances, on top of her bit of ballet. Swing, however, was a completely different topic. She didn’t know the steps, she needed to get used to very fast music, and most importantly of all…

“I have nothing I can wear,” Helen stated. Bucky’s face fell. If the birds had learned one thing, then it was that a final, unchangeable fact was a woman’s definite need for a suitable outfit.

Helen looked at Jay.

“And as I don’t think you have a vintage dress either…”

Jay’s face turned from excited to mortified. Helen bit back a laugh. If they had to go dancing at all, she would at least make sure the bird enjoyed it.

* * *

Whilst Helen was outside to phone Wanda, completely ignoring the time difference that would mean waking up Wanda in the middle of the night, and Steve and Bucky cleared the breakfast table, Jay used her chance to trail after Sam as he was preparing the guest room for her.

While he set up the futon for her, Sam listened to Jay’s story about the dancing schools. Well, the whole embarrassing ten-word sentence she was able to produce, and only because Sam insisted. She was even more embarrassed when he hugged her.

“It’s okay, really,” she said quietly.

Sam shook his head. “No, it’s not. It’s an insult, and you can name it as such. You can believe me in that.”

Jay knew enough about humans to be sure that he was speaking from experience. She would have liked to put her hand on his arm.

“Though I’m not sad that you’re visiting us,” Sam said with a shy smile.

Jay felt her cheeks glow. “Neither am I.”

They sat down on the futon together. The windows here went down to the floor, leaving a great view over the wilderness behind the house. Jay could spot some of Steve’s tree saplings from last year.

“To be honest, there’s something I wanted to tell you.”

His face was too serious to hope for more sweet words. Jay felt her stomach shrink into a little ball of fear.

“What is it?”

“Last week,” he replied, his gaze fixed on something outside the window – far, far outside the window, “I visited the town my grandmother came from. The one I told you about, where they feed wild hyenas.”

Jay nodded. She had loved that story. They had wanted to go to that place one day, together.

Sam continued, “I was taking a walk in the savannah, but at some point, I couldn’t go on." He paused. “It was strange,” he said then, shaking his head. “I thought I’d never felt such a thing, but now I'm not sure anymore. Dizzy, kinda, not really a headache… something wanted to direct my thoughts somewhere… somewhere I wasn’t ready to go. And somehow that reminded me…”

“You feel the same thing when I’m around.”

Jay did not like stating the obvious, but then, she wasn’t so smart as to find better words, was she? Sam was just so good at describing things, she knew exactly what he meant. He was so good with words.

“You mean –“

“You’ve found an Infinity Gem. The sixth one,” Jay said.

“I don’t know what that was, maybe –“

She took his hand. Very gently, barely touching him, and still Sam flinched. A stabbing pain flickered through her heart at the sight, but she had no other way of doing this. Of sensing the magic still tingling over the smooth, surprisingly soft back of his hand.

“I’d have told the others, but I wasn’t sure,” Sam said. He looked at her, his hand still not withdrawn. Jay quickly let go. She tried not to, but she could not help but blush at the thought that the first person he asked, even before talking to Steve, was she. Surely this was because Steve didn’t have a Gem, but… she just wanted to keep that feeling safe in her heart, just for a little while.

“I can tell Sif, if you like,” she said quietly. “She will know what to do, and find the Gem if it is necessary.”

Sam nodded. Still looking at her. Still…

“Jay! We gotta leave!” Helen’s voice resounded from the hallway. “I’ve found that shop, it’s gorgeous!”

Jay growled. “Know what, I hate shopping.”

Sam laughed.

“Look forward to the dancing,” he said. “I do.”

She did.

* * *

As fancy as dancing may sound to an outsider, lindy hop swing dance could do with more spacious settings than easily crowded dance floors in poorly lit vintage cafés. The gym Sam frequented was just large enough for the ever-growing club, and although Helen had trouble keeping her dress from getting caught at the edges of the tribune seats at the sides, she had to admit that the location was quite charming for a sport so fun-oriented. Well, whenever she had breath and mind enough to do so, anyway.

Another benefit of the dance was that it wasn’t strictly meant for couples, at least not in this place. The five of them could easily dance as a group, or with whichever other number when someone took a break. As of now, Helen and Jay sat down to sip a little water and nibble the sandwiches they had brought. It was a very informal place, no catering provided. That just added to its character, Helen thought.

She had learnt the basic steps more quickly than she had wanted to admit, but then, Sam was a great teacher. Helen had tried to ignore the voices in the back of her mind, one complaining that she wanted Steve to teach her, the other stating that it was embarrassing enough having him around while she still stepped on her own shoes. Good thing she had had a pair of old flat dancing shoes, too, and another spare pair for Jay.

“You look great in that dress,” Helen said for at least the third time today. Of course the shop Wanda had recommended was the best in town for vintage dresses, as Wanda herself had already sold some of her designs there.

Within only about half an hour, Helen had chosen two calf-length dresses of pale pink and lavender colour respectively. As they wore the same size, she had pressed Jay to borrow the lavender one, which suited her perfectly. It only took them one more hour to get ready, mostly because Jay couldn’t be bothered to do much more about her styling than allow Helen to bind her hair back with a matching lavender ribbon. When they had arrived at the bird band’s house once more, from where the gym could be reached within walking distance, the expressions on the guys’ faces had been priceless. They hadn’t expected them for at least another ninety minutes and now hurried to get changed and ready. Upon Steve’s nervous question to Bucky whether he should wear the beige or the blue shirt, Helen had almost said “the tighter one”. Sam had said it for her.

“Already tired?” Bucky said as he left the dance floor and reached for the bottle of water Jay held out for him.

“You wish,” Helen said. Thanks to her Infinity Gem, she could have danced on all night without feeling any exhaustion at all. Apart from her enhanced sight, that was the only side effect she had felt ever since she had started to carry the Gem. Of the five of them, Sam was the only one still in need for actual breaks, and he was in such good shape that he paused very rarely. Come to speak of which…

“They’re still not tired of practising that choreography,” Bucky shook his head. “Really not my cup of tea.”

“Want some?” Jay asked, shaking the thermos suggestively. Bucky didn’t lose time, for really, Jay’s tea wasn’t something one missed.

“Jay?” Steve called from where he and Sam had just finished a wild synchronous pattern of steps and were now slowing down for a moment.

“Coming!”

The bird flew back onto the dance floor, where Sam and Steve caught her, a part of their dance already.

“Helen?”

As much as she wanted to respond, the sight of Jay being so harmonious even with two dancing partners, having started to learn basic dances no more than one or two years ago, kept Helen back. She felt that pang of guilt for never practising enough, but now… she didn’t envy Jay, except, maybe she did.

“You should go, you know?” Bucky said behind her.

“What?”

He rolled his eyes.

“Alright, let’s go through the theory again.” Bucky fished a small notebook out of Steve’s bag from where it lay under their chairs. “Let explain that pattern of steps for you…”

“Without a pencil?”

With a bit of a smirk, Bucky flipped the notebook open so she could see. The two pages were full of tiny drawings in minuscule detail.

“That’s his sketchbook!” she shrieked as quietly as she was able. “Put it back!”

“You wish.”

She didn’t. Steve’s drawings, or what she had glimpsed of them, were gorgeous, but he never showed them to anyone – or at least not to her. He always blushed and started to stammer, something he never did, so the first time it had happened, she had believed him to have a seizure and promptly dragged him to her practice for a check-up. Well. Not the worst thing to happen either.

Bucky turned two more pages, then held out the sketchbook once again – and Helen saw her own portrait there, in perfect little detail, but so much more beautiful than whatever she had ever seen in a mirror.

“My God…” she murmured.

“If you need any more proof…”

Almost every page held her likeness. There were drawings of the others, too, even Peggy, although Steve talked so little of her these days, and with such a sad face that Helen tried her best not to remind him. There were a lot of drawings of Sam, Natasha and Bucky, but… there really were a lot of her, too.

Bucky stopped at a page that showed her asleep, leaning against someone’s shoulder. Helen remembered that. It had been at Pepper’s and Tony’s wedding, she recognised the jacket she had worn. So she hadn’t dreamt…

“What in Heaven’s name do you think you’re doing?” Steve asked, snatching the sketchbook from Bucky’s hands. Helen felt her heart jump into her throat.

Bucky shrugged. “Helping. You can thank me later,” he added as he returned to dance with Jay and Sam.

“I’m so sorry,” Helen gushed, “I really didn’t want to –“

“Sorry, no, I didn’t mean you –“

All of a sudden, the thought of seven foot of superhero being afraid of her judging his art skills left Helen very, very calm, and very, very determined of what she would do next.

“- but I wouldn’t mind seeing more of your art. It’s beautiful,” she said.

He looked at her with an expression on his face changing back and forth between a guarded hope, and a much more guarded fear, but finally, slightly shaking his head, replied:

“I always wanted to be an artist. Even got a degree in art history, though I know that doesn’t show.”

“And I always wanted to be a princess,” Helen said. “Who of us got closer?”

“A princess?” Steve chuckled.

She shrugged, “I know. When you’re Asian and you tell someone you want to be a princess, they laugh. It’s less fuss to tell them you want to be a doctor,.”

“I’m not laughing about your dream,” he said quickly, but sincerely enough to be believable. “But now I get why you were so keen on finding out if Thor has a girlfriend. Well, unless he finds another lost cousin of his, you’ll have to be very quick to get Jay’s hand in marriage. Sam has had his charms working in his favour for quite a while now.”

“I’d be queen then, not princess. Believe me, I’ve thought it all through.”

It was enough to have them both break into giggling. Yes, actual giggling, which looked quite nice on such a tall man as Steve. Speaking of tall…

“Would you grant me the honour of the next dance, your highness?” he asked, offering her his arm.

“Now you’re making fun of me,” she pouted.

“No.” He made a little bow to her, and it did look real. “If you’d like to be treated like a princess, you deserve no less.”

Slowly Helen reached out for his arm.

“So if I’m a princess… do you think we can persuade Bucky to be fairy godmother?”

Steve shrugged, looking at Bucky playing a sort of leapfrog game with Jay and several other dancers.

“Somehow I don’t believe that that will take much persuasion.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That city Sam's grandmother came from exists for real.
> 
> Also, I obviously have very little knowledge about dancing, but somehow I thought lindy hop would be just the thing Steve and Bucky find to be fun.


	41. Chapter 41

“A report and transcript of this will be available for download on the university website later,” the lecturer said. “I’d therefore like to ask you to kindly put your phones away. It’s a bit distracting,” he added with a winning little smile.

“Sorry,” Jane mouthed, grinning back and pushing her phone into her pocket. She sat in the last row of the vast audience hall, filled to the brim, but could see the wink in Thor’s eyes nonetheless.

He was a natural at the podium, Jane had to admit not without a little envy, but certainly without surprise. As nervous as he’d been for the past weeks, once Thor started his speech, he was fully in professional mode. They had practised often enough, of course, she knew his lines word by word, but the way he conveyed them to an audience – half the academic world must be here, they had rented the concert hall to make space for more people – that was unique.

She couldn’t have been more proud. As intimidated as he had been by the prospect of speaking at a university, Thor’s natural curiosity had him agree to Jane showing him what living and working in the academic world meant. By and by, he had grown accustomed to it, visiting seminars with Jane (on invitation of the principal, of course) and assisting her in her first speech since, well, everything. It hadn’t been much, just a short introduction of her research resource project and its latest developments. Jane didn’t even do much there these days except add whatever she learnt about other solar systems and discuss her findings. The overall positive feedback she got was due to her newfound reputation as an Avenger, she was sure. Astrophysics were her job, after all.

What Thor did right here and now was much more astonishing. Nobody would have believed that he was lecturing for the first time. Certainly, he would be used to speaking in front of many people, but compared to how nervous he had been in the beginning, it was amazing. So was his speech.

It was essentially a summary of the first handful of chapters from Thor’s book about mathematics, but he managed to turn the facts into a whole new narrative, a coherent series of stories including a beginning and an end. There were metaphors, examples and parables, and a handful of anecdotes, all of which connected to the theories to convey (except one which Tony had bet Thor couldn’t place in his speech, but Jane wouldn’t tell anyone). One and a half hours flew by in no time at all, and the thirty minutes reserved for asks from the audience hardly sufficed to answer even the first row’s questions.

Although Jane found herself doodling random thoughts and ideas into her notebook, as she always did with some time for relaxed musings on her hands, she enjoyed listening to Thor’s speech in such a big setting – nervous as she was for him though, that she couldn’t deny. There was no need for the latter, as even after his long speech Thor kept up his relaxed, focussed stance. He replied to every question sincerely, especially to those of the students, and elegantly but straightforwardly handled the questions from people who clearly intended to unsettle his theories. It was great.

When the end of the lecture was announced, the staff had visible problems getting the spectators to leave. Jane didn’t even try to get through to the podium, and instead waited for the crowds to vanish before she made her way down to the small preparation room, where Thor was packing up his laptop and notes. Not that he had many, memorising genius that he was. Most of the paper he had in hands were pamphlets members of the audience had managed to press on him before being complimented out of the hall. Jane couldn’t help but feel reminded of what people threw onto the stage at rock concerts.

“You were brilliant!” she beamed as he looked at her with what she thought was an expression of guarded uneasiness. At the smile slowly spreading over his face, Jane ran over to him, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him with what she hoped was enough to make him stop thinking for a moment or two.

“I learn from the best,” he grinned quietly at her when they had both somehow caught their breath again.

“And quickly so,” she winked. “We gotta celebrate this.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Well, this is a big event. Tea won’t do.”

Thor looked at her in mock impression. “Was I that good?”

“You bet.”

There was a sweet little coffee shop just across the street, and naturally, it was crowded with people who had been at the lecture or had failed to get one of the precious tickets. Still, when Jane and Thor came inside, a small table was immediately cleared for them, much to Jane’s embarrassment. She had never been served a caramel latte so quickly (soy, low sugar, no artificial sugars, no artificial food colouring – Darcy could be everywhere).

She exchanged a glance with Thor, who shrugged, sipping his beloved coffee black and strong enough to keep an elephant awake for a year – the smell alone made her giddy. A little too giddy, maybe, as Jane found herself saying to the general susurrus surrounding them:

“Alright, he does autographs and answer questions, so long as he gets to drink his coffee in between.”

This made Thor laugh, and happily accept the first book shoved under his nose to sign.

Within a moment’s time, their small table-for-two was surrounded by a whole throng of people, making Jane want to leap to the ceiling and stay there.

“But sit down, if you don’t mind! I can’t see anything!” she added in a raised voice at the hubbub.

“Want to sit on my shoulders?” Thor smirked at her. She just narrowed her eyes as she glanced at him, grinning back.

The shop was one of those places with thick rugs and throw pillows on the solid wooden floorboards, and within minutes, those had been drawn up to form a nice little grotto for the many people throwing questions and (fortunately not literally) books at them. Much to her chagrin, Jane got a lot of signing to do, too. It wasn’t even her book, but people insisted. Thor was in over his head in questions about his lecture. They didn’t ask him once which designer he was wearing, so Jane did. Because he’d know, and because he’d know that she was teasing him.

She was well prepared to dive into her caramel coffee and not come out of the mug again before Thor decided to end his audience – because clearly, at this rate, people wouldn’t just grow tired and leave them alone until well into the night. However, before Jane could so much as sip the cream topping off her truly delicious beverage, she found herself having signed three books, five notes and a dog coat (not worn by a dog at the time), had replied to a handful of questions about her website and two rather tricky ones about astrophysics, had posed for who-knew how many selfies with spectators and assembled a small cloud of people sitting around her chair, all eagerly hanging on to every word she said.

“Could there be life on Mars?” one young woman squeaked.

Jane said carefully, “Well, there’s a lot of things you could count as a hint, for example water… there is ice, for example.”

“Yes, but _is_ there life on Mars?”

“Spoilers,” she grinned. This was one of Jane’s principles in her own world: sure, she could just use her Infinity Gem to find out about the universe whatever she wanted to know, but that would not be science. As she had explained to Thor so often, her elven face and pointy ears aside, she was still human, and she would continue to do her work like a human.

“I’ve read everything you’ve written about wormholes – I mean Einstein-Rosen-Bridges!” the woman continued.

“You can call them wormholes, it’s fine,” Jane smiled. She meant it. Erik had loved scoffing at Darcy for not knowing much about physics, and at first Jane had agreed with him, but it had been wrong. After all, Darcy was incredible at understanding physics facts if someone explained them to her properly, so why not other people, too?

“That essay about how aliens use three-dimensional holograms instead of formulas to explain physics? And how you turned that into a way we could use to make science and learning easier? That was _awesome_.” The woman’s face glowed with excitement as she added: “I never got science stuff before, but now it’s so easy!”

Trying not to blush too hard, Jane said, “It’s a much easier way to explain complicated matters, such as wormholes. Usually what I’ve found out would take several books to describe, but by tweaking Thor’s method a bit, you can summarise it all on, I don’t know, less than a hundred pages.”

“Are you gonna teach here, too?” another woman asked.

“I don’t know yet. Maybe.” She was sure there had been an offer or ten in her ever-flooded e-mail inbox.

“When are you getting married?”

Ah. Jane could probably count herself lucky for having lasted so long on the science-related questions.

“Some time in fall.”

“It’s just that if you marry in summer,” the same woman said, “you’re less likely to teach, so…”

“Oh,” Jane said with a surprised chuckle, “well, then I guess I should hurry putting up a schedule, right?”

She didn’t plan to quit being a scientist just because there’d finally be a ring on her finger, but the question was understandable.

“You’re not wearing an engagement ring,” one of the men said.

Jane replied, trying not to make too sour a face, “Yeah, we’ve decided not to do that. Cultural thing. But while you mention it…”

She reached out over the small table for Thor’s hand. The gesture alone made him freeze in motion, no doubt trying to explain a mathematic principle or maybe just recounting an anecdote with the Avengers, and look at her in surprise. Jane smirked.

“Now, I thought I’d better do this when we’re on our own, but as it seems, it should be official.”

“And you wouldn’t even tell me!” she heard a well-known voice from behind the crowd. When Jane looked up, she saw Darcy there, her phone ready to record the scene. Nick stood next to her, looking splendid in his coat and a knowing little grin.

“Come to fetch you two from work,” he grinned.

“Thanks, Also-Dad,” she smiled back.

Thor frowned. “Now you point at it…”

Their gazes met. “Eye patch!” they said synchronously.

“Weren’t you two lovebirds about to announce something?” Darcy asked, probably on a tight schedule of managing the universe again. Or maybe her phone was just getting heavy.

“Right.” Jane turned back to Thor, once more taking his hand. His fingers closed reassuringly around hers. “So… usually it’s the man proposing, but as you’re not from Earth, and this is a local custom, and I don’t even know why I shouldn’t, I’m gonna ask you anyway.”

He smiled at her, but waited patiently for her to continue. It was quiet enough in the room to hear a fly have a very rude thought.

“It doesn’t matter if there’s a piece of paper saying we’re married or not, ‘cause that doesn’t change anything about that I love you, and I’m afraid that’s not gonna change for at least a couple thousand years to come – sorry,” she grinned. That caused some laughs. “But then, we can just as well make it official, and if it’s just for the papers and my mother getting to plan her party.” Now people were roaring. “So…”

She took a deep breath.

“Would you marry me?”

Nobody in the room so much as dared to breathe.

“There is nothing I’d rather do – if you will take me for your husband, too,” Thor said with a smile that could have melted her where she sat. Before Jane knew, she lay in his arms, his lips gently touching hers for a kiss so sweet, even caramel would have looked dull and a tad embarrassed in comparison.

The resulting cheer was deafening. People walking by outside must have thought that the local football team had won some finale. For a change, Jane didn’t mind the noise, for Thor kissed her again, just to make sure. She couldn’t have felt any more safe and comfortable than in his strong, warm embrace.

“Nice,” Darcy said, switching off her phone, “but next time we’ll script that.”

Nick put an arm around her, slowly walking her to a chair in the corner whose former inhabitant had stood up for a better view of Jane’s proposal.

“Darcy,” he said, “without wanting to belittle your PR skills, but if you don’t mind some advice from an old –“

In a gesture so swift even Nick couldn’t dodge it, Darcy grabbed his lapels, pulling him down to her face.

“First of all, you’re not old. And second: _why are you only offering this now_?”

* * *

They say that time flies when you’re busy, and so Darcy had made it her habit to scream at the clocks to run faster. She didn’t want to have time on her hands, not if it made said hands shake in fear of what to do with it. She didn’t want the rest of herself to shake at the thoughts, the memories, the nightmares – what was what, she had never cared to find out and certainly would not start now – which time of leisure brought on. When eight out of ten on the annoyance scale, as Darcy called her bracelet, turned into normality, it really wasn’t worth the effort.

There were ways and methods, after all. Whenever Jane yelled at her to sit down and rest for a moment, if not a whole evening, Darcy made sure to have her knitting, crocheting, embroidery and what have you ready, her iPod, two tablets, the TV running, all lights turned on (“I need good light! I don’t want to wear glasses as thick as ashtrays!”) and as many people as possible about. Minus Natasha, maybe, who had dared to mention that Darcy’s eyeglasses were made of ordinary glass instead of lenses. A mean stare that woman had.

It was a good thing that the wedding was drawing close. Lady Beatrice fluttered about the house whenever she didn’t float through Nick’s abode (she said she stayed in the city, yeah, right), driving Jane nuts, who had locked herself into her lab for the past two months. Thor was the only one able to charm her out of it when there were more than two other people in the house, which was almost always the case. Well, maybe not right now.

Another gloomy morning of early autumn, another day that would be shorter than the one before. Darcy felt her head droop as she sat at the breakfast table with Jane and Thor. She was so tired… if only sleep weren’t such an arse.

“You’ve been out late,” Jane said in her incomparable way of stating the obvious without ever getting the point. “Was it a good party?”

Darcy groaned. As if she’d been out much lately. She had seen Loki, sure, repeatedly… always something she vowed never to do again, and then her feet would just carry her to that other world, that clearing in the magical forest… why Loki, of all the people in the universe?

That was the question she had been asking herself over and over for the past years. Why, of everyone she could have met in those caves, did she have to encounter the most insufferable, arrogant, smeary, worst dressed bastard of them all? Who had become quite a good kisser, after a little practice. Not necessarily first-class, but at least above-standard in some other things as well, and with a talent for learning. Games that left her all exhausted and regretful in the morning, whenever that was.

“You’re not telling me you’ve finished breakfast, are you?” Jane said with a look at Darcy’s half-eaten stack of pancakes.

“Too tired,” Darcy said. She felt sick just looking at the food in front of her. Maybe they had some cheese somewhere… nobody except her liked it, but Thor sometimes remembered to buy some for Darcy. She was lucky so long as Pietro and Bruce didn’t visit, cheese aficionados they were.

Jane, in a very unwelcome bout of awareness, sat down next to her on the kitchen bench. “Are you sick?” she asked, visibly caught between feeling Darcy’s forehead to check her temperature, and despising the very thought of doing such a nosy thing.

“Do we have to call a doctor?” Thor asked, with a funny little glint of fear in his eyes which Darcy couldn’t help but notice. When it came to human illnesses, he was completely clueless. Well, except for the two dozen books he’d read about the topic, and counting. Helen kept sending recommendations. The frustrating thing was that he understood all of those texts, too.

Darcy growled, “Nothing a doctor could help with.” Unless he was cute, rich and single, of course.

“Maybe you should think about seeing a doctor if this doesn’t improve,” Thor said, not noticing that Jane had slipped a huge, plastic-wrapped sandwich into his laptop bag, so he’d find a handy snack in it when he unpacked his things at work. She had stopped accompanying him, the crowds exhausting her too much, but that didn’t keep Jane from making sure her super fiancé wouldn’t go hungry through his new job. Thor still hated showing to other humans how much food he needed, for reasons Darcy would never, ever understand. If he was worrying about a shortage of groceries, well, it wasn’t as if the pathetic tomato plants Jane had half-heartedly abandoned in the rocky ground underneath her bedroom window weren’t barn-size already. Each.

Darcy deliberately missed how the two lovebirds said bye to each other for the next insufferably long three hours during which they’d pine for each other’s presence. It took ages, and each kiss-love-you-miss-you-bla-bla hurt her sore head.

Finally the front door closed, after which Jane would do her little moping routine of staring through the door window until she couldn’t see Thor any longer – he preferred to walk, as it would only take him twenty minutes if he wasn’t delayed by any fans – and then sigh dramatically, only to stroll back into her lab/nest. Except for today.

“Do you want to sleep in the lab?” an unwelcome voice asked next to Darcy’s pitiful ears. She looked up.

“Won’t that drive you mad?”

“Sure,” Jane shrugged. “Still.”

Darcy wanted to hiss at her that she didn’t need help, that she didn’t need anyone at all. Sadly, she didn’t have enough strength even for such a simple lie. Abandoning her half-emptied cup of tea on the table, she heaved herself onto her feet and followed Jane out of the kitchen, who had the brains to not ask any further. Or maybe she had just run out of words again. That happened with Jane.

“Do you want anything from the pharmacy?” Jane asked as she tucked in Darcy on her lab couch. Yeah, she had a couch in her laboratory now. For couching. In her lab. Darcy tossed away the blanket, awful thing it was, all warm and cosy. She hated cosy. She hated warmth. Go away, everyone. Go away.

“Go away.”

“Is it a stomach bug? The flu?”

Something snapped. “Why don’t you just read my mind with your super alien magic and find out?” Darcy snarled.

“Because I don’t do such a thing. It’d be rude.”

“You can just rewrite the rules of politeness, too,” Darcy gave back.

Jane looked coldly at her, as it was her way when she expressed something that didn’t require any emotion. There was a big difference between simple, objective fact and open disdain, the latter of which Jane hardly even knew. It was annoying, really.

“I could do that,” Jane said, “I could do everything that is linked to reality, and everything is. I could make it so my father didn’t die. I could just do that. But I won’t.”

“Look at you, all the noble hero.”

Now Jane seemed to get that she was supposed to get angry. Good.

“See, I didn’t agree to carry an Infinity Gem because I wanted to play God, of all blasphemous things to do. All I want is a lifetime with the man I love. I’m trying to stick to that.”

“And if something happens to him before that lifetime is over?” Darcy smirked. Oh, this was a good one. She could see the red in Jane’s eyes.

“A lifetime,” Jane repeated quietly. “And I may just do the same for you, in case that’s the next thing you wanted to ask.”

It wasn’t, which proved that Jane really wasn’t reading her mind. Typically stupid of her.

Darcy could play this game much longer though. “Then what happened to ‘ask people if they even want your help’?”

Jane’s jaw clenched. Quietly she said:

“Do please go sleep somewhere else.”

Darcy complied immediately, if not happily so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will feature the evening before the wedding. Bring your party hat!


	42. Chapter 42

October had come, and it was time to get married. Jane had spent most of the year shut into her laboratory, unless she had been jetting around the universe with Sif and Gamora to work on her comprehensive guide to the galaxy and every little particle in it. The more upset she got about the prospect of a double wedding party, the more she worked, and while that sometimes helped, it couldn’t keep the actual thing from happening. She thanked God for her wonderful husband-to-be a lot these times.

Thor had finished his series of speeches at the university with generally very positive reviews, plus a handful of not-so-great ones which Jane could easily dismiss for him as envious tries to belittle his achievements from people who couldn’t so much as operate an hourglass.

They had come to visit his mother to celebrate, and to have a bit of a break before the wedding. The good thing about the double ceremony was that here in space, Jane didn’t have to prepare much. The palace was awfully good at throwing parties on its own, thank you very much, and all she had to do was trying on her dress, which was perfect, and promise not to bite anyone who tried to help her into it or take the vow of her, because the latter would be Loki.

“Why not?” Sif grinned. “I have seen him being bitten by a lot of things, but human is not on the list.”

Loki eyed her with an arched brow. “Careful,” he sneered. “I may just have bound you to your beloved this afternoon, but that won’t keep me from teaching your favourite bilgesnipe where you keep its food.”

“For real, you have adopted a bilgesnipe already?” Thor chuckled.

Gamora shrugged. “She was injured, and hardly more than a hatchling.”

“Do you think you’re the only one who wanted someone small, cute and cuddly?” Sif teased in Thor’s direction as she pulled Jane onto her lap. The latter would have tried to get away, but Gamora had used the chance to sit down on her other side, doubling the cuddling. Oh well. Like that, it wasn’t even bad.

“I think I can positively say that your relationship is gonna be a very successful one,” she smirked, shrugging as Thor looked at her with a bit of a pout when Sif and Gamora simultaneously kissed Jane’s cheeks. He knew as well as everyone else that they only did it to mock him, and that if he wanted Jane back, he’d have to get her himself. If she let him. If he could bring himself to stand up, which was the actual bit of effort after the long afternoon.

They had all slumped over some of the many comfy palace sofas, taking a break from standing on their feet all the way through what was called a bond – the outer space equivalent of a civil partnership ceremony. It was quite common here, on this small planetoid with its small populace. The only comment it had drawn had come from Darcy and been directed at Jane:

“See, absolutely _everyone_ is getting married before you.”

To which Jane had replied, “Excluding you.”

Darcy was somewhere Jane didn’t know about at the moment, being important and annoying at someone Jane didn’t envy. Her intern had been insufferable for the past month or so, and Jane didn’t like what that implied. Still, as long as Darcy wouldn’t tell her, she couldn’t pry. Besides, at about thirty years of age, Darcy was old enough to say what was wrong, or if it was just her way of coping with stress. She should be old enough to know when to rest, too, especially when roundabout a dozen people told her so every day.

“At least I don’t put my poor beloved through having to meet the mother-in-grace,” Sif smirked at Thor. He rolled his eyes, but it was Jane who groaned. She had spent the last hour or so trying not to think about Beatrice, who was having tea with Queen Frigga right now. Actual tea. That had been her gift to the dowager queen, no matter how many times Jane had insisted that coffee was a better idea.

“Maybe you did not,” Thor gave back, “but did you propose properly?”

“You didn’t!” Betty exclaimed at Thor. She looked fantastic, Jane couldn’t help but notice. Although it was difficult to understand, separating from Bruce seemed to have done Betty nothing but good. “A quiet, happy end to something that had been left open too long already,” Betty had said.

“He did,” Jane beamed. “It was very romantic.”

They hadn’t told anyone because, technically, it shouldn’t matter to anyone else. Thor had been wonderful. He had planned everything so Jane would enjoy it: nobody but the two of them in the little tower above their bedroom, now big enough to have a small upstairs chamber. All windows open, the clear summer sky, lots of candles downstairs, and a bright full moon for additional light. That was how he had asked her, simply and quietly, if she wanted to marry him. A more than six foot tall, three hundred pounds mountain of rock-hard muscle from outer space, prince of the most blingy place Jane could even imagine, a being so deeply rooted in magic that he did not even notice it running through him – being gentle, kind, and ever so patient, all for her sake, and without failure ever since they had met. If Jane hadn’t been so absolutely sure of wanting to marry him for the past three years, she certainly would have been then.

“But we still need to fetch the rings,” she added. They had agreed that while wedding bands were a custom from Earth, it would be nice if they were made in Thor’s world. He had suggested that, instead of choosing from the vast vaults the dowager queen was safeguarding until Loki would choose a wife to take up that responsibility, they should have newly made rings, just as their marriage was a fresh, new thing not bound to any old baggage. The goldsmith in town was just waiting for them to pick up the rings, so they could give them to Steve, Thor’s best man.

“There may, after all, still be hope for you,” Betty winked.

The doors to the room had opened for Queen Frigga and Lady Beatrice, the former clad splendidly in one of her breathtaking gowns, the latter little surprising in Chanel. They seemed to get along fantastically.

“Or not,” Jane finished Betty’s sentence.

“Oh my darlings, let me congratulate you,” the queen said, hardly waiting for Sif and Gamora to rise to their feet along with the others, Gamora smiling broadly, Sif clearly looking for a hole in the ground into which she could vanish. “And you look so beautiful!” Frigga said after she had hugged both, then made them turn so she could have a better look at Sif’s tunique-and-breastplate outfit as well as Gamora’s floating dress of pale green and gold. It was a traditional wedding dress and as such not actually meant for the ceremony of bonding, but as Loki had quietly explained to Jane after the official part had been finished, the customs had started to blur during the past ten or twenty millennia. Quite modern then.

Betty approached the queen, whispered something into her ear, nodded at the reply and, with an elegant curtsy, left the room. At Jane’s surprised glance, Frigga smiled:

“Now that she has decided to stay, I have appointed Betty my new maid of honour. She and her knowledge are a blessing for the gardens, and I hope she enjoys the continuation of her research.”

That explained the courtly style of Betty’s dress, Jane thought. She did not have time for any more musings for in that moment, Frigga decided to give her a firm hug, leaving Jane quite dizzy.

“And how beautiful you look, too!” the queen smiled. “To think that in no time at all, I shall call you daughter…”

Beatrice smiled most graciously as the queen turned to her. In Jane’s head, a list of the things she regretted started to scroll by: that she hadn’t simply run away with Thor to get married on the spot three years ago, that she still hadn’t finished working on her portable wormhole, that her vow not to use her Infinity Gem to magic herself out of this place and back home was still unshaken…

“Hello, Mother,” Thor’s warm voice said. Jane took a step back, gratefully, as he embraced Queen Frigga.

“I heard you finished your lectures,” his mother said. “I am so proud of you. And thank you so much for the book, it is very well-written. I have advised for it to be added to the palace library immediately.”

Jane was quite sure to see a bit of a glow on Thor’s cheeks. He only ever referred to the library with the utmost reverence. They certainly didn’t store “Pride and Prejudice” there… unless Darcy had happened. Oh dear.

“Shame there’s no Nobel Prize for mathematics, huh?” Tony smirked behind Jane. She hadn’t heard him and Rhodey come into the room at all.

“Shut up,” she snarled through gritted teeth. “We’re all keeping our thumbs pressed for Helen, remember? Keep focussed! She’s gotta win this year!”

Helen made so many discoveries every year that it was a mystery to everyone how she couldn’t have won five times already. Well, Jane had her theories, but as those were cynical, she kept them to herself.

“Where’s Helen anyway?” Jane whispered.

Pepper said, “Still sightseeing with Steve.” Tony thought that a suitable occasion to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively.

Meanwhile Loki pouted, “And doing a king’s work is ordinary?”

“Of course not,” Frigga replied, beckoning for Loki so she could embrace him with her free arm. “I’m so proud of both my sons.”

Everyone just waited for her to add the inevitable “and when are you going to get married”, but Frigga did not say anything, to Loki’s visible relief. Little wonder, as his time to find a suitable wife was almost up. Jane wondered what he wanted to do about it, but if anyone could carefully nudge Loki for the topic, it would be Thor. Maybe not so close to his own wedding either, as Loki may try to turn him into a frog. A cute frog for sure, but still a frog.

“Whom have I not embraced yet?” the queen asked with a humorous glittering in her eyes as she let go of her sons, Loki looking quite smug. She was just about to greet Tony and Pepper as Jay and Sam zoomed past outside the balcony, Sam looking super cool and Jay grinning from ear to ear, waving frantically. Flying was still new enough to her to leave her in a state of supreme giddiness. “Ah, those two,” Frigga smiled.

There was to be a banquet in Gamora’s and Sif’s honour in the evening, the queen’s gift to them. Usually it would have taken place in the house of Sif’s clan, but apparently there was nobody else. Jane wondered if that was why Sif had been raised in the palace.

“Jane, about your honeymoon,” Beatrice said quietly, although Thor stood right next to her, “I have arranged it all for you.”

Jane tried very hard not to roll her eyes, failing miserably. She and Thor had agreed to tour the universe for two or three weeks, and Frigga had suggested a stay at the palace in between. It would be lovely to be out for a while, although Jane would miss the cats, and she had Thor’s promise not to drag her to any parties. Actually, that had been easy, as he had said that he was looking forward to have time all for themselves. Just to be precise, he had made that promise without her having to mention any parties at all. Oh dear. He was perfect.

Beatrice wasn’t finished yet. “And when you come back, I have prepared the east wing for you two, you’ll find it very –“

“Distant, as we’re not staying,” Jane finished her mother’s sentence. “And putting lace covers on the battlements won’t change that.”

Thor asked, “You live in a castle? You never mentioned. Maybe we could visit for a weekend or so?”

Maybe not so perfect.

“Let’s talk about that when all that wedding and honeymoon stuff is over, okay?” Jane said with a forced smile. “And then I’ll tell you more about draughty nights in squeaking four-posters with mattresses made of wood that’s so old it was once stone, or the other way round, I don’t remember.”

He chuckled. “Very well, I suppose we can always visit when it suits a little better.” The tiny wink he reserved for her suggested that he could easily make sure that would never happen. Alright, perfect after all.

“If you’ll excuse me,” Thor said, “there is something I need to talk about with my friends.”

“I wonder what that will be,” Beatrice said when Thor was already halfway through the room. As Jane felt no interest in the topic whatsoever, she ignored it.

“This custom called ‘stag night’, no doubt,” Loki’s voice said from behind-and-above her shoulder, making Jane jump.

Loki must be very lonely indeed if he voluntarily chose talking to Beatrice. Feeling the sting of pity, Jane turned so she could see him better. “Won’t you be there?”

“I’m afraid I –“ Loki’s eyes flickered through the room, but he did not seem to find whom he was looking for. “I have other business. It is not my kind of amusement either way.”

“Really?” Jane asked doubtfully. “They’re going to see the special screening of all three Lord of the Rings movies. You’re in for a treat.”

Loki liked those movies, she was sure. _Everybody_ liked “The Lord of the Rings”, or they would after they had stayed in House Foster for movie night.

“Still I will decline,” Loki said. “My brother will hardly miss me. Time flies by so quickly.”

Jane somehow doubted that Thor wouldn’t be sad about Loki’s absence, but she didn’t poke him any further. The night was too young to be turned into a frog.

* * *

Time did indeed flying by, and while Jane did her best not to get stressed – yoga, playing with the cats, yelling back and forth with Darcy whether the tea or the milk were to be poured first – she was stressed. Hugely stressed. The downstairs corridor would forever carry furrows from her meanderings.

Everyone had come over for the stag and hen parties respectively, and to keep up with tradition, Thor had moved in with Nick exactly twenty-four hours before the wedding ceremony. Sif had been asked if she wanted to go with the stags, being Thor’s best friend and all, but she had preferred to look after Jane. To the latter, this sounded as if Sif had finally discovered the blessings of quiet, married life without wanting to admit so. Jane could have felt sorry for Sif, Darcy and the others who had to put up with her, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to do so.

They hadn’t planned anything big for her last night of ringlessness, and at Jane’s request, that wouldn’t be interrupted by any surprises for her (unless they involved her husband-to-be, which Natasha had rejected fervently). She couldn’t deny that it was nice after all, with Gamora and Maria cooking for them and a manicure night and sitcom marathon after that. Jay fell asleep during the wedding episode of “The Nanny”, for which Betty painted her talons a bright pink. It was meant to be funny, or so Jane understood. She felt distanced from this emotion that should have been natural to her.

It wasn’t the thought of being separated from the love of her life for a whole long night, boohoo, bla bla. If at all, Jane worried about Thor having to put up with Tony’s jokes all night, while at the same time knowing that if anyone was perfectly able to keep calm in the face of lame punch lines, it was Thor. No, just as usual, her motives were much more egoistic: too many people around, a huge event ahead, and several weeks away from home did not actually scare her. No, the prospect of everything ahead rather left Jane in a kind of stupor, filled with the nagging sensation at the back of her mind that it would all be terrible. It was one reason as to why she hated parties. Never something to look forward to. It was bad enough as it was, but usually she’d have Thor and Darcy to rely on when it became too much. Right now, however, Darcy was the last person Jane would have consulted. Whatever was wrong with the intern, it was rather she who needed consolation – if only Jane knew why. Maybe several weeks on her own while Jane was on her honeymoon would give Darcy the break she needed.

The others discussed their highlights of “Gilmore Girls” over a crate of what Helen called a very good wine (she knew about this sort of thing) when Jane lurched into the kitchen for a last cup of tea before bedtime. She was just about to get the kettle going when she heard the doorbell. Sighing, she opened – and faced Beatrice.

“Uhm – hello, Mother,” Jane said. Wow, that was a whole sentence, wasn’t it?

“May I come inside?”

“Oh. Sorry.” Jane quickly stepped aside, closing the door after Beatrice had stepped into the hallway. “Sorry. I didn’t expect you before tomorrow.”

Beatrice looked a little flustered. “Well, I was around, and… do you mind if I stay? I thought with so many guests already here… I can sleep on the couch, too.”

Was this really her mother? She had never seen Beatrice so insecure – she had never seen her even a little insecure, nor outside a five hundred metre radius of a Chanel costume. As it was, Beatrice only had a small bag with her, no comparison to the trunkfuls of clothes and make-up she usually brought along.

“I have my dress ordered to be delivered,” Beatrice explained. Thoughtful of her, but Jane wondered why her mother felt the need to tell her.

“Tea?” Jane asked. Couldn’t be wrong, ever.

“Yes, please.”

Under normal circumstances, Jane really, really made sure not to use her Infinity magic for anything so trivial as to cool down her tea so she could gulp it down in one go, but unexpected motherly visits probably justified an exception to the rule.

“Right, let me just go upstairs and find a room for you,” Jane said. It wasn’t as if she was afraid not to have enough spare rooms, she was rather afraid there’d be too many. Helen used maps to navigate through first floor, and she refused to climb up to the second on her own.

“Let me help you with that,” Beatrice quickly said.

Jane stared down at her mother’s half-full tea cup. What, oh Lord, was going on that Beatrice would leave her tea for pulling some linen onto pillows? She’d better take along the teapot.

They passed the living room unnoticed. Little wonder, as all Jane could understand of the wine-lulled voices was a very heavy-tongued “Whassit with shirts these days anyway? Why they always shrink on Steve?”, which was a very good question.

Her mother tended to stay in a small room at the end of the upstairs corridor, on the opposite end of which lay Darcy’s and Jay’s suites. Jane found it cold and dreary, but for some reason she had never asked Beatrice if she didn’t want a nicer room.

“Don’t you want a nicer room?”

Beatrice looked at her with genuine surprise.

“I find this one adequate.”

There were a lot of things Jane could have asked at this point – whether adequate meant okay, bad, or on the very lowest level of acceptability, if Beatrice was silently wishing to have rung Nick’s doorbell, if she was seeing the room as a visual metaphor for her relationship to her daughter – but as it happened in such moments, Jane had no words at all. Trying not to shake with all that stored-up uneasiness, she focussed on fluffing up cushions and put linen on thick blankets. The nights could be quite cold at this time of the year.

“Right, uhm…” Jane said when she was finished. What did one do in such a situation? This was ten out of ten on the bracelet scale, and all she wanted to do was to walk out of that door. Down the corridor, the staircase, through the hallway, out of the house and right over to Nick’s, where her husband-in-less-than-twelve-hours stayed. However, if it was something she wanted to do, then every physical equation ever written down pointed at it being something people with good manners did not do. That left only one way of behaviour Jane could think of, this thing being…

“Tea?” she said, lifting the thermos she had brought. Beatrice accepted readily, having emptied her cup while Jane had refused any help with making the room a little cosier. Turning up the heating had been a good idea, although she wondered if Beatrice, in her draughty castle, even liked so much warmth. Oh dear, another apt metaphor for how they stood with each other.

“So… is there any particular reason why you’re here?” Jane said, knowing quite well that she was rude. She was also tired, exhausted, unnerved, nervous, and about to get married the following day, but who asked about that? Nobody did. Well, Thor would. And they’d sent him away. It really wasn’t her fault.

“Nothing in particular,” Beatrice said. “Well, we never spent much time together, did we? And it is more convenient, being here in the morning to help you get ready…”

Jane tried to imagine how Beatrice wanted to help, with a whole house full of excited bridesmaids and her feral daughter in the middle of it all. Why couldn’t Queen Frigga be here? If anyone could handle a bag of flees, the queen of nine solar systems should be a good guess.

“We can go downstairs, where the others are,” Jane tried.

Beatrice smiled where she sat on the bed, looking like the perfect lady she was in her immaculate travelling clothes and holding her teacup. Jane felt very, very small, and very, very aware of her messy ponytail and oversized sweatshirt. One of two she and Thor had kept wearing in turns, so they could both have one shirt to cuddle with this night.

“Why don’t we just stay here and talk a little?” Beatrice said. “It is my daughter’s wedding tomorrow, after all.”

Jane actively had to remind herself that said daughter was she.

“Uhm – okay.” She sat down on the other side of the bed, sending a silent prayer of thanks to God for having created the blessing that was tea. “Hope you don’t want to let me know about what happens in a wedding night,” she tried to joke, “because Thor and I may have rehearsed that a couple times already.”

To her horror, Beatrice said with a smirk, “I would not have expected less of my daughter.” By and by, Jane started to get an inkling of how her parents had found each other. After all, there would have been a time before their divorce.

“I hope you will not ask me for advice on marriage now,” Beatrice said. Was her mother trying to be funny? Again, Jane had no idea what to reply. She was about to stammer something awkward when –

“Ah, I am sorry. I should not use sarcasm,” her mother added. Jane blinked. Beatrice continued, “I have read up on your condition, you know? I understand now. I wanted to tell you much sooner, but we just had so little time to talk recently, time goes by so fast when one is busy…”

Oh yes. One “how to deal with autists” book later, everyone was an expert. Still, Jane tried to tell herself, for Beatrice this was probably a big step.

“If this is difficult for you, you don’t have to reply. Or tell me in case you don’t want to talk at all and I –“

“No, no, it’s okay.”

It wasn’t, and somehow Jane would have liked to say that she made this effort on her mother’s behalf, but it wasn’t. This was simply her stubbornness speaking at the implication that there was something she couldn’t do. Jane wasn’t a half-witted dog to be taught how to fetch a stick.

Apparently this had thrown Beatrice off her well-rehearsed path, as she looked just as unsure about where this conversation was heading as Jane had just felt. Maybe she wasn’t all her father’s daughter, after all.

“And you really don’t want to come to the castle after your honeymoon?”

Oh dear. Now Beatrice started to repeat herself. Not good, not good.

“Sorry, we already have other plans and…”

“I saw the ghost last week!” Beatrice beamed. From ladylike to Loony Toon in less than ten seconds.

“Mother, please –“

“I hadn’t seen her all this year, but now she is back,” Beatrice continued eagerly. Jane tried to shut out the images. There was a legend about a nurse wandering the corridors who had worked in the castle during the brief time it had been a hospital during the 40s. Jane was sure that she had seen her once, although she couldn’t and wouldn’t remember if she could help it. The mere thought made her shiver. Ghosts were not good.

“Did I scare you?” Beatrice looked as if this seriously surprised her. “She is not a malevolent ghost, actually she looks after people.”

“Still scary.”

Even scarier, Beatrice reached out and put her hand on Jane’s. Jane wanted to pull back, but Beatrice was quicker. “I’m sorry, you don’t like that, do you?”

Too stunned to reply, Jane simply shook her head.

“Would you like a hug?” Beatrice asked. Would this terrible night never end?

Before Jane knew, Beatrice sat next to her and hugged her with the strength of a mistress of archery and horseback riding. It was surprisingly nice.

“You never liked that when you were small,” Beatrice said.

“I know,” Jane said. “I always thought something was wrong with me.”

“So did I,” Beatrice replied with a certain sadness in her smile. “Wrong with me, not you.” Jane felt a tug at her heart. Maybe she had indeed underestimated what it had been like for Beatrice to be a mother. Her mother. But what was the point of apologising? Frustrating, so frustrating.

“Actually, this reminds me of how I once tried to act like one of those glamorous movie stars who cling to the sides of their lovers while the background music goes up,” Beatrice said. “Your father flinched and I fell off my chair.”

As bad as it made her feel, it made Jane laugh, and to her surprise, her mother joined in. Had they ever laughed together?

“Also, speaking of your father…” Beatrice reached over to her small bag, opened the front pocket and carefully pulled out a flat, letter-sized gift box. Top quality, of course, and probably as expensive as other people’s gifts tended to be. “This is not your wedding present, just so you know,” Lady Beatrice declared. This probably meant a cappuccino machine later. Ew. “But it means you can open it now.” Curiously fussy, Beatrice added, “It isn’t a present at all, to be precise. I just went through some old things of your father’s that I found in the attic last week, and I thought this was something you should have.”

Jane felt every muscle in her body tense. She didn’t want this. No matter how well-intended, and one could never be sure with the Lady, Jane did not want to think of her father. Not tonight, when she was feeling so lost and lonely already. Her last night of loneliness, she tried to tell herself.

“You can open it,” Beatrice repeated, quite bad at hiding her own nervousness. Her fingers shivering, Jane complied.

The box had an easy magnetic clasp that required a mere lifting of the lid. Inside, wrapped carefully into layers of fine tissue paper, lay an old, battered notebook bound in dark cardboard. It was impossible to tell which colour it had once been in the dim light, with age and all kinds of dirt and smudges having left their imprint on the covers. Jane looked up at her mother, but Beatrice only nodded for her to open the book.

“That’s… that’s recipes!” Jane exclaimed.

“Is it? I couldn’t quite read the language, it must be Polish, I think,” Beatrice said.

Jane hastily, albeit anxious to tear the brittle paper faded to a dull shade of ochre, flipped open the first page. There was a name written there, in the top-hand corner. Her mind, helped by the magical Gem, translated it as Esther – the name she carried as well.

“This was my great-grandmother’s,” she managed to say, but just so. The writing was old-fashioned, spidery, by a hand not used to writing a lot. Recipes, some as long as two pages, others just a handful of lines. There was a date jotted down with every single entry, for every cake, every instruction how to prepare this dish of lamb or that type of bread. The last date lay in the middle of the 40s.

Jane felt her heart break, right in the middle.

As the sobs started to rise in her throat, she clutched the precious cookbook to her chest, careful not to have it stained by her tears. The room around her was too much, every detail, every little noise of the old wooden boards creaking, the light was too bright even in its dimness, and Beatrice far too close, yet too far away at the same time. Jane could sense every bit of her mother’s distress at not knowing why she was crying, as well as her own inability to explain. As Beatrice awkwardly offered her an arm, Jane gratefully huddled closer to her, relieved when the hug came. Just as before, the sensation of her mother’s arms around her were not as bad as she had feared. Carefully she placed the recipe book back in its box, then returned her mother’s embrace.

“Thanks, Mom,” she managed to whisper for the first time in her life.

A little hoarsely, Beatrice replied, “It’s alright, darling.”

They sat quite a while like that, although Jane’s arms started to get sore and Beatrice must have cramps in her shoulders already. Beatrice didn’t let go though. She didn’t try any of the soothing techniques that had never worked on Jane, she just held her tight. Didn’t say anything ridiculous. Didn’t ask why Jane broke into new sobs every now and then, trying not to think of all the things she had missed in her life regarding her family and failing pathetically. The overwhelming gratefulness that she did have a mother after all, even if it had taken her more than thirty years to find her.

“Now,” Beatrice said when Jane had finally grown a little quieter, sitting up on her own, “let’s get you cleaned up a little, shall we? No use if your eyes are all puffy at your wedding day. I have just the moisturiser you need…”

“ _Mother_ ,” Jane sighed. Odd, how wrong the formal address felt.

“Let – me – finish my sentence, young lady,” Beatrice said, index finger raised. Who was this woman, changing personalities in a heartbeat? “I was going to say, we make sure your face doesn’t sting from all those salty tears, and then you phone your fiancé.”

Jane snapped to attention. “What?”

Beatrice shrugged. “He may not be allowed to see you, but you can talk. If anyone can calm you down, it’s that rather smart young gentleman you’ve found yourself there, and besides, there really is no need for you two to be so distraught at the evening before your wedding.” She noticed Jane’s raised eyebrow and added, “I did make sure everything was fine at Nick’s before I came over.”

Jane couldn’t help but chuckle. All of a sudden, she didn’t quite want to run out of the room so much anymore. Not if she’d be lonely in every other room of the house.

“Mom?” she asked, her tongue still a little awkward at shaping the syllable.

“Yes, darling?”

“Mind if I sleep here tonight?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for more than 10000 clicks! Wow, so many readers? As usual, any feedback is hugely welcome!


	43. Chapter 43

It was a splendid wedding, even a very unnerved and completely exhausted Jane would later have to admit. Well, both of her weddings. Splendid, and very pretty maybe, but entirely over the top and frightening for the bride for sure.

Jane’s longest day in her life – even compared to the day when a well-meaning college friend had dragged her to a shopping-and-spa tour, the day on Nix which lasted fifty Earth-hours, and the time she had presented her dissertation – started quite early with Betty waking her. Apparently there had been a draw of straws about that task. While Jane cured her own headache with another guilty little bit of magic, she noticed that only Wanda, Helen and Darcy were in the thrall of a hangover at breakfast, and only until Nat served them her very own remedy. It worked in such ways as Wanda gulped it down together with a big breakfast and peacefully fell asleep on the kitchen bench, Helen declared that she was already much better by the mere look of the slimy concoction in her glass, and Darcy, having tasted the brew, started to yell curses at a nonchalantly shrugging Natasha.

It took hours to get ready, hours filled with Wanda trying to sort out which dress was whose, earrings lost, lipstick mismatched, half of Jane’s laboratory detecting alien phenomena in Gamora’s dressing room – which then turned out to be Betty’s – and Beatrice failing hilariously at trying to coordinate the whole thing. Failing so badly actually that everyone forgot until half an hour before their appointed time of leave that nobody had styled or dressed Jane yet. That was definitely one of her highlights.

The wedding took place in the local registry office, which was quite lovely after all and could just so hold the closest family members, or in other words, all of the Avengers and their friends. Queen Frigga and Loki were invited, but the former had preferred not to add to the hubbub this wedding would be even without her presence, while the latter simply couldn’t be bothered. He had a much bigger fête to orchestrate after all. Jay was also in space already, and Jane wouldn’t begrudge it to the little kitten if it was out of nervousness with so many humans around.

In what must have been a miracle, or maybe someone had helped with magic, Jane as well as her huge gown were indeed ready and inside the car Nick had hired just in time. Beatrice insisted on driving, Nick took the passenger seat, and Darcy sat in the back with Jane.

“Right,” Darcy said, not exactly building an atmosphere of comfort, “let’s get on with the agenda. First of all, you tell me that I’m a gorgeous bridesmaid.”

“You’re a gorgeous bridesmaid.”

That wasn’t a lie, although Jane couldn’t help but wonder how Wanda’s expertise at making Darcy’s midnight-blue gown and Natasha’s make-up skills had been able to hide Darcy’s hangover.

“Now that’s settled,” Darcy continued, “the next thing on the list is something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. The last one’s me. I asked Loki, but he sulked. For the other points…”

She reached into her purse and pulled out Jane’s notebook, “something old, in case you feel like jotting down genius ideas on the universe while you say your vows”, a shrink-wrapped sandwich, “something new, or so I hope”, and a CD. “My Lana Del Rey album, because judging from your listening habits during the last weeks – the nights, actually – you’d be seriously deprived on your honeymoon in space if you don’t have it. Did that sentence make sense? It made sense to me. Next time you ask me for an up-to-date playlist, okay?”

Jane didn’t want to know what “next time” was supposed to mean. She gratefully nibbled the sandwich, for once not feeling hungry but positively sick with nervousness. Half a lifetime later, which translated to ten minutes in the world of physics, the car stopped.

“You know that you have to get out of the car, right?” Darcy said. “And don’t tell me you got the flutters now, after three years of engagement.”

Jane rolled her eyes. She wasn’t afraid of getting married, she just wished it to be over already.

“I know,” she said, “but I’m stuck in a carful of wedding dress.”

The car was supposed to have space for eight people, and yet Darcy just-so fit in with Jane.

“Alright, boss,” Darcy said as Nick opened the sliding doors for them. “Let’s get you out of the tin.”

Together Beatrice, Darcy and Nick managed to manoeuvre Jane’s dress out of the car without letting the endless train – twenty foot of silk – touch the parking space, and they remembered to make sure that Jane made it back onto her feet, too. Beatrice and Darcy were about to usher her into the registry office, but before they could do so, Jane quickly put a hand on Nick’s arm.

“Sorry, I know this is really last minute, but – will you give me away?” she whispered quickly.

Nick looked at her in surprise.

“Sure, but – this isn’t a church, you don’t have to have someone to lead you down the aisle.”

“No, I think I do.” Swallowing down the fear that was about to silence her, Jane added: “And it would mean a lot to me if that person was you.”

To Jane’s surprise concerning her bleak understatement how much better she’d feel with Nick by her side, he nodded.

“It’d be an honour,” Nick said. Jane didn’t quite see why it was, but she was too relieved. Looking at her mother, she asked: “Would you, too?”

“Isn’t the aisle a little narrow for all of us?” Beatrice said.

Jane quickly replied, “No.” They had practised this, ridiculously huge wedding dress and all. Besides, well, she was a sorceress now, and pretty good at physics, too. “Please, Mother… Mom.”

Beatrice exchanged a glance with Nick who smirked quietly at her, before she sighed, “Very well, who could deny something to a bride? And you look lovely, my darling.”

“Yeah, this is really nice family vibes and all, but could we make sure she looks even better inside?” Darcy snarled. Nobody dared to reply, and so they went inside.

Wanda and Betty made sure that Jane’s dress was without creases and her make-up flawless before they gave their okay. Darcy made sure Jane was ready, gave the signal for the music, and then walked to the clerk’s desk through the rows of chairs.

Absolutely everyone was here. All of the Avengers, the whole of F. Street, the Guptas, even Ian and Estefan, the latter of whom looked close to tears as ze spotted Jane (they had finally found out that Estefan preferred neutral pronouns). She tried to concentrate on walking, which was a task quite of its own in such a long dress, and it helped to feel Nick’s and Beatrice’s hands in hers as they walked her down the aisle. Finally Jane could look up and see.

She noticed Sam wink at her, that Steve stood ready as best man, that Darcy was jiggling on her feet trying to speed up the whole thing for lunch, but she did not really see. Only having eyes for one’s husband-in-another-five-minutes was probably okay though, in Jane’s situation.

Thor looked wonderful. Well, he always did, and not having seen him for a whole day and night added to the glamour, but Jane was quite sure that either her morning tea had been funny, or the air around him really was glittering. Maybe he had walked into a stack of crafting glitter pots again, just for her. He’d do that sort of thing. Either way, the simple black smoking and tie couldn’t have brought out his looks any better. Nick and Steve had made a fantastic job of his hair, which for once did not escape its ponytail tied back with a simple black ribbon of silk. Not a scrunchy, Jane noticed with relief.

Then he turned to her, and she forgot about his hair for the moment.

It was probably true that nobody had ever looked at Jane the way her beloved did, but even he had never appeared so amazed by her appearance. Sure, Wanda had outdone herself with the long, close-fitting silk gown that accentuated her small waist with a silver girdle and then flowed freely into a wide skirt and train, embroidered all over with stylised patterns in the shapes of stars, truly ancient designs Beatrice had found on tapestries in her castle. The Celtic designs on the bodice came from even more ancient sources, carvings on stones related to the clan. The hems of her long sleeves, the seam of the bodice at her collarbone and the edge of the veil, attached to the knot into which Jane’s hair had been bound and of the same length as the train of her gown, were stitched with a pattern Wanda had found on the only photo left of Jane’s grandmother, showing her in her own wedding dress.

Only the little tiara was not related to her family, as it had been a gift from Thor. He loved giving her jewellery, knowing that she was intrigued by the fantastic designs he chose for her, but also how rarely she dared to wear any of those expensive pieces. She had never worn this tiara so far, but there was no doubt that Thor would recognise it. The tiny stylised stars and moons were surprisingly similar to the patterns on her dress.

Jane had almost forgotten about everyone else around them when she felt Beatrice embrace her, and Nick, too. Nick wanted to say something, but apparently couldn’t quite find any words. Knowing that feeling too well, Jane gave him some of the smile she couldn’t hold back any longer, as he and Beatrice sat down together in the front row.

The rest of the ceremony Jane would never quite remember. She and Thor couldn’t stop looking at each other, which was a tad distracting when they signed the marriage certificate. When the paperwork was done, rings in place and kissing advised, one of the strands of Thor’s hair managed to get lose and stuck in the corner of his mouth as they kissed. Giddy with laughter, they tucked the culprit back into place and showed everyone how it was done properly.

Somehow someone – may have been Natasha – managed to remind them that they still had to leave the office, which Jane had completely forgotten about with her now-really-husband being so attentive and warm and close. It was all the traditional walk out with everyone throwing rice (ouch) and not just a handful of passers-by stopping where they stood and taking photos with their phones. Huge dress or no, Jane was quicker inside the waiting limousine than anyone could have said “poptart”.

“I love you, Mrs Foster,” Thor smirked as they sat in the car. Well, after they’d sat in the car for quite a while, but were finally able to talk to each other again. He always knew so well what to say.

“And I love you, Mr Foster,” Jane grinned back. He was also awesome at always giving her exactly the clues as to what to say back.

Kissing the tip of her nose, he added, “Thank you for sharing your family name with me.”

“It’s my pleasure,” she beamed. “Couldn’t leave you all without one for the rest of forever, could I?”

“You’re wonderful.”

“So are you.”

The dark pane of glass that had so far separated the limousine’s passengers seats from the driver slid down, and Tony said:

“Just to let you know, we’re gonna be at your house in about five minutes – and it’d be two if you’d let me bring the car, but that’s another story. Anyway, if you two want to get comfortable, just let me know and I’ll circle a bit.”

“Nah, thanks,” Jane chuckled. “Betty’s not gonna forgive me if I smudge this make-up.”

“Or me,” Thor said.

* * *

It was a lovely party after all, with everyone having lunch on the terrace and then either preparing to leave for space, or stay as long as they liked. Just for once, the cake was store-bought, but it probably looked nice enough, she could hardly tell. Jane just wished she hadn’t been so wound-up already, and with so much still to come. She was pathetically grateful when Helen declared that they should all take an hour’s rest before moving on to the next party. It kept the dancing mercifully short for Jane, whose feet hurt terribly. Her legs ached from getting caught up in her dress all the time, and the inside of her nose stung from the perfumes and aftershaves of all the people she had had to hug and dance with. Thor napped away immediately as they retired to their room, but Jane was still so overwrought that she could have sworn only to have fallen asleep as Maria knocked at the door.

Thankfully the ceremony awaiting her next was much simpler. This time Thor was allowed to be around as Wanda and two of Queen Frigga’s own maids helped Jane into her dress. It was much lighter than her first wedding dress, all iridescent layers of gold and bright spring green embroidered with flower patterns. Apparently these were the traditional designs for a young bride. Despite the dress’s many layers and the long, hooded cape of light green velvet that went with it, this outfit was much easier to walk in – mostly because she would have to do a bit of walking – and the shoes stayed mercifully flat. In space, only riding boots had high heels, probably because nobody really saw the benefit of looking even taller than they were. Jane could only agree with this fashion.

Her hair crowned with and braided around a fragile golden circlet, but otherwise flowing freely over her shoulders and back down to her hips, no more make-up in her face, Jane felt oddly more herself than she had for the whole day so far. Maybe that was because this time, Thor was by her side as they walked out to meet the others again for their trip to space. She wasn’t used to seeing him in his ceremonial outfit, the breastplate, the vambraces, so many layers of metal and clothing. It was certainly strange not being able to snuggle up to him, but then there was the trademark superhero cape, and the cape was awesome. Besides, he looked fantastic, but that was a mere side note.

Jane had never seen so many people pass a wormhole at once, and she fidgeted quite stubbornly in Thor’s arms as she tried to gesture to Darcy that she needed her notebook to scribble down all the interesting theories going through her head. She was sure that Darcy just pretended not to notice her.

“Let me?” Thor whispered in a way that made it look as if he merely put a light kiss on her cheek. Jane nodded as subtly as possible. They had agreed that once arrived, Thor would manage the ceremony and simply take Jane along, so she could relax a little. Funny enough, how a hugely important event in a huge palace hardly bothered Jane, while a mere trifle of a formality on Earth had scared her so much. On the other hand, maybe she was so tired already that she didn’t notice anymore.

The theory wasn’t so far from the truth, as Jane realised when Thor lifted her up onto the back of a huge white charger and rode with her down the rather narrow, slippery-looking bridge – and she enjoyed it for what it was, a calm ten minutes with her love. Besides, the view was splendid.

If her house’s terrace had looked beautiful with the handmade paper flowers they had all crafted together during the last week (Tony, to everyone’s surprise, being the quickest at making them), this place made it look like the half-hearted attempt of covering a folding table with a paper tissue. Frigga, and it must have been her, hadn’t just decorated the palace – she had decorated the complete planetoid.

Quite in the philosophy of not wasting anything, every street and every building shone in holograms of gigantic leaves and blossoms. They glittered and sparkled half-translucently in shades of gold and light green, the centres of the flowers holding multicoloured crystals. Drops of glimmer dripped off those leaves, and little lights floated around them, making it look as if they were riding into a gigantic meadow of dreams. Oh, to have just some minutes for themselves… and then several hours to find out everything about the alien technology making the spectacle possible in the first place.

Her feet felt still sore, but the shoes were so comfortable that Jane didn’t mind quite so much. Maybe it was because with Thor by her side, who looked as at home while they walked through the cheering crowds as he could be – at his home, technically. The thought stung a little, but to see him happy was too good.

It was impossible to get lost, with both sides of the way packed with spectators. The throne room alone was a little more sparse on decorations, probably because otherwise it wouldn’t have been big enough for all the attendants. The guests had clearly been invited from all over the galaxy, and while most were at least humanoid, some required aquariums, others a solid ceiling. The throne, however, looked as usual, with Loki sitting in his typical insufferable sprawl, his mother and cousin by his sides, with Sif, Gamora and Betty directly with Frigga, and Thor’s other friends below on the steps to the throne. Jay positively wiggled on her feet, as Jane noticed with a grin.

When all the guests they had brought from Earth had been ushered to their places and the hubbub in the vast hall had abated, Loki finally stood up. Jane was relieved that for once he didn’t wear his ridiculous helmet, for she already felt quite giggly, probably a result of fatigue mixed with the relief of having done with the whole wedding thing successfully on Earth already. As he couldn’t walk down the steps to the throne without everyone standing there descending first, Loki gestured Jane and Thor to step up to him, so he could address them more directly.

“So the two of you would like me to marry you to each other,” Loki snarled nonchalantly as if not half the galaxy had assembled for the very purpose, “or so I’ve heard…”

Thor replied in a tone of fake surprise, “Why, so the decorations aren’t for us? I’d never have thought of you to have such a floral taste, brother.” Before Jane could elbow him to stop, Thor winked at her. Jane left it at an inner shrug. He’d know how to handle this, and in case the two brothers started the fisticuffs, their mother was close enough. Somehow Jane wasn’t quite sure if Frigga would bother though.

Loki continued with a heavily overacted sigh. “Such a bright mind,” he said, taking Jane’s hands in his, “and yet you’d settle with this oaf for your husband?”

“Before you ask, I don’t have any sisters,” Jane said smugly, hoping it wouldn’t be too rude. Loki’s question, no matter if this was all about banter, had rubbed her quite the wrong way.

“What are you saying when she stands right here?” Loki replied, pointing at Lady Beatrice. If the audience had giggled so far, they were now roaring with laughter.

“She’s also single!” Jane exclaimed, which made Beatrice blush to the roots of her carefully coiffed hair and everyone else finally cracked up.

Much later, when they were already halfway through the elaborate banquet dished up in honour of the freshly married couple, Thor quietly explained to Jane that the wedding ceremony itself, after so many years of living together before it came to happen, hardly meant much to a betrothed couple. It was usually conducted by an elder of the family and more of a jolly for both their families, by that point already well-acquainted. That was why the jokes had become a tradition, while the actual words Loki had spoken as he joined their hands stayed so simple. He had even repeated the last sentence in English, so the human visitors could understand.

The food was wonderful and Jane famished, which meant that she hardly noticed all the well-wishers while she was stuffing her face with the feast piled up in front of her. Volstagg and Fandral apparently made it a game of saying things to her she would not notice, and Fandral was about to win when Jane finally looked up, not stopping on her way through dessert. Thor laughed with them, pulling her up on his lap and planting a bristly kiss on her cheek that made her laugh in return. She did like his beard, short and neat as it was. It glittered so nicely in the firelight, especially when his hair was half-open with a thin braid or two.

“Look,” he whispered into her ear, but Jane had already noticed.

A soft music had started to play, flutes and some harp-like instruments of various sizes. The talking abated, and everybody turned toward the largest terrace, which had been cleared of all furniture. Jane cast a quick glance at Sam, who just in that moment happened to look at her, too. He winked. She grinned. The whooshing of wings in the cool night air outside had already announced the next part of this evening’s entertainment.

Jay’s wings were so large that each one’s outmost feathers brushed the railings on either side of the terrace as she landed, a swirl of rainbow-coloured glitter and dragon magic. The audience gasped in amazement, Jane noticed not without some pride for her cousin. Jay did not seem so much move with the music, but rather the music seemed to flow through her dance, the filigree patterns her bare feet drew upon the floor, the elegant curves of her wings and the spirals in which she turned around herself.

Time seemed endless as the music turned from tender to ferocious, from joyful to bittersweet, to happy, and finally to a swell of light in which Jay turned back to her humanoid shape.

As she sank gracefully into a curtsy, the applause from the audience rose to deafening levels. From what Jane could see on the faces of Thor’s friends, nobody in this palace had ever seen anything like this dancing performance before. Grinning from ear to ear, Jane jumped from Thor’s knees to be the first to congratulate Jay and thank her for the wonderful performance. The little dragon hardly seemed to believe that the still continuing applause was all hers.

“Wait, wait, this is Sam’s work!” she tried to shout, but it was almost inaudible. She gestured for him to come to her, and as Sam complied, Jane gave him a quick hug and then left the two to their well-deserved standing ovations. She saw Rhodey pretend very keenly that he just had something in his eye.

No matter how mesmerising Jay’s dance may have been, the wedding guests rather quickly returned to food and drink, something Jane somehow understood. She herself had her thoughts quite elsewhere all of a sudden again, too, when her body reminded her that she had been up on her feet since pretty much forever.

Stifling a yawn, Jane went to where Helen and Natasha sat, watching Maria winning round after round of arm-wrestling with everyone challenging her. She had just made Volstagg cry.

“Have you seen Darcy?” Jane shouted over the noise. Missing a party was so distinctly not Darcy that Jane couldn’t help but worry. Just when she had started to enjoy herself, of course.

Helen yelled back, “She said she wanted to have the pool to herself.”

“Which one of the three hundred?” Jane snarled. Darcy may love the spas here, but if she wanted one of her own, she had it right in her suite of rooms.

Nat gave her a very unhelpful “Told you” gaze, which made Jane return to Thor. He had just been toasting with Steve, who now went over to where Helen sat. Jane tried to gaze into the darkness of the terrace, where she could make out the outlines of Jay and Sam at the balustrade, dancing slowly in the still audible music. Gamora and Sif had found a cosy little corner for themselves, far away from the crowds Pietro had assembled to introduce to his clearly annoyed (“And still single, too!”, Jane heard Pietro shout) sister. At least some things went right tonight.

“Looking for Darcy?” Thor asked. Oh, these mindreaders.

“She’s gone for a swim. She said.”

Thor put his arms around her, drawing her close. Jane couldn’t help but let herself sink against his chest, wishing she could fall asleep right there in that very moment (she was certainly able to).

“I told Loki to be polite to her,” Thor said.

Jane chuckled, “Really? What did he say?”

“Looked like a kicked bilgesnipe hatchling, snarled something unspeakable. Nothing extraordinary.”

That really seemed to be very much in the ordinary, and maybe Darcy simply hated weddings. Maybe the time Jane would spend on her honeymoon would give Darcy just the time she needed for herself. If not, she could come to the palace any time, or stay with the bird band.

If only Jane hadn’t been so sure that Darcy wasn’t the type to ask for help when she needed it…

All of a sudden, something else caught her attention. Jane growled:

“Is that Nick trying to flirt with your mother?” They had warned Nick about the local spirits being quite a little stronger than he may expect.

Thor looked up to where Jane indicated and replied nonchalantly:

“Quite so, I think. Shall we guess how long Lady Beatrice will stand by fuming?”

Jane snarled, “Before _she_ starts flirting with your mother?”

“Hey. Let’s go,” Thor whispered into her ear. Jane nodded, leaning against him. Her fingers brushed over the inside of Thor’s lower arm, now covered in layers of clothing, metal and leather, and when she looked up, Thor gave her a tiny little smile, only meant for her, which assured Jane that they were thinking the same thoughts. In the short break between the ceremony and the party, they had both visited the healers once again, where the minuscule contraception device in Thor’s arm had been deactivated. More importantly though, some final checks had confirmed that… that they could have a family together.

Before Jane could take a single step however –

“Now, now, who’s trying to get away here?” Fandral’s voice said very audibly. The whole room fell silent. Jane sighed. Oh no.

All three of Thor’s pals stood in their way, and Sif to the side, which would have been Jane’s best guess for a second exit. There was suppressed giggling in the room at what was to come: the quest.

It was custom that the bride and groom would not be allowed to get their peace and quiet before they hadn’t proven that they’d do whatever possible to stay together. Usually this was a trivial little joke, such as replying to a nonsense question. Somehow Jane suspected that in this context, it would be a little more tricky though.

“What do you want us to do?” she asked.

Hogun smirked. Brr. “You can go, if you like. If you can make it.”

“You’re not allowed to use your hammer,” Fandral added, grinning from ear to ear.

So that was their quest: a game of catch through the palace. Jane exchanged a glance with Thor, and at once they said: “Three trees down five,” before they dashed in opposite directions of the room.

Jane could still see Sif roll her eyes, explaining to the others, “That’s their code language from when they play football.”

* * *

Jane hesitated, listened. Nobody around. She carefully lowered herself over the balustrade, landing noiselessly on the terrace below. These shoes were lovely indeed. Would she be allowed to keep them, if she asked really nicely?

Only a moment later, Thor’s large shadow leapt over gracefully from yet another terrace, and they finally closed their arms around each other again.

“Sports in one’s wedding night usually don’t consist of running through a palace the size of the Moon,” Jane said.

“On Earth, that is,” Thor smirked.

As they went inside together, finally safe from wedding guests trying to play catch with them, he said:

“I hope you could enjoy it a little at least. It was a lovely wedding. Both of them.”

“No, it was. I mean, I liked it.” As Thor stopped in his steps to look at her, Jane added: “But I’m glad it’s over.”

This had him chuckle. He took her hand, tenderly kissing the finger now adorned with a simple, solid ring of warm golden colour. The metal was called Forged Starlight, very rare. It was a little heavier than gold, and much more solid. These rings would not lose shape in some thousand years of continual wearing.

“I’m just quite tired…” Jane said as they entered the bedroom. She was grateful that Thor hadn’t carried her around in front of everyone, embarrassing as it was even as a newlywed, but those last steps appeared to be too much already.

“Too tired to continue with Earth’s wedding customs?” Thor said quietly, his beard tickling her cheek. There was no teasing in his voice.

“Darling,” Jane said little impressed, “we haven’t been practising for three years only to chicken out now, have we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course you noticed that the wedding kiss interrupted by a stray strand of hair was directly inspired by the blooper reel on the "The Dark World" blu ray edition in which the same thing happens to the actors.


	44. Chapter 44

“Not pregnant… not pregnant…” Jane and Thor counted down the seconds in unison as they sat on the floor leaning against some sofa behind them, both of them holding on to a pregnancy test. The stopwatch on Thor’s phone announced that three minutes had passed. They looked at the small screen of the test. “Pregnant!” they shouted at each other, falling into each other’s arms and laughing because it was so silly.

Almost three weeks of their honeymoon were already over, and from the beginning Jane had felt that something had changed: she was even more hungry than usual, oscillating between states of fatigue and agitation, and the giddiness which had taken possession of her was seriously ridiculous. It hadn’t taken any magic to guess what was going on, although Jane had checked, just to make sure. Only this morning though, Thor had found half a dozen pregnancy tests at the bottom of Jane’s suitcase which apparently had been placed there during her hen party, if one could believe the note written in Gamora’s artistic hand. If that wasn’t a reason to laugh until one’s ears turned a sparkly turquoise, Jane didn’t know what was.

“We’re not gonna tell anyone yet, are we?” she asked, sobering up a little. The healers had explained that for Thor’s people and Elves alike, a pregnancy lasted between twenty and twenty-one months in Earth time. Still, the first trimester stayed the most likely for complications, and so for the next seven months it wouldn’t be wise to be too excited.

“As if you could keep a secret,” Thor mocked. This made Jane laugh again.

“I just wish I was further along already,” she said, snuggling into Thor’s arms. Almost in a reflex, he pulled her up so she could lean against his chest. It was quite the only place where Jane would still sit calmly.

“How does your mother say? ‘Careful what you wish for’?” he grinned. “Time goes by quite too quickly sometimes.”

“Yeah…” Jane sighed. “This honeymoon has gone by way too quick.”

She had never believed possible that having nothing to do all day and night – no cooking, no cleaning, no saving the universe or yelling at Darcy that no, the tomato plants did not need knitted capes – could be so enjoyable. Just for once, they could stay in bed the whole day if they wanted (which they had), or go to the most absurd places in the universe on a whim (which they had also done, later). They had been to the flying jellyfish festival on the tenth moon of Nix, eating popcorn they had brought from Earth and cheering for the jellyfish they had been given by the mayor to be released into freedom (it was considered a lucky thing to do, especially for newlyweds). There had been a wonderful day in the universe’s largest library, which had turned out to have been five days after they had returned to the palace, and after which both Thor and Jane considered to furnish their house with books, and nothing but books. Still, and she might be superficial here, but the gemstone beaches of Chu (Jane couldn’t pronounce the planet’s name, but it sounded like sneezing) had been the most spectacular thing Jane had and would ever see. Who else had ever complained about having to scratch diamonds out of the soles of their hiking boots?

“Don’t you miss your work?” Thor said, not without a mocking glint in his eyes.

Jane smirked as she replied, “What tells you I haven’t taken mental notes?”

“In that case I have already failed as a husband.”

“This thing clearly says you haven’t,” Jane grinned, wiggling the pregnancy test.

His large hand cupped her cheek, her jaw, her ear, all at once, as he drew her close to kiss her. Jane loved that gesture, always had, much to her own disbelief. “Only three more days,” she sighed, gently rubbing the tip of her nose against Thor’s. He kissed her once more, this time much longer.

“Three more days just to ourselves,” he said.

Jane laughed. “We should at least have tea with your mother before we leave.”

With a deep sigh, Thor picked up his phone again. “And maybe check my e-mails…”

“Hey!” Jane snatched the device from his hands. “No work during honeymoon, we agreed,” she said, switching it off and feeling quite smug because after at least a dozen times that Thor had done the same thing to her now, this was her first chance to pay him back.

“No work, huh?” he smirked, his eyes glittering again. “But what else could we do? I have no idea, do you?”

“I don’t know,” Jane replied, giddy at the mere thought of getting the joke. “You know the place better than I do.”

“In that case,” Thor replied, lifting her up expertly, “it might be time for a tour.”

Jane loosely slung her arms around his neck, as comfortable as she could have been. With the bedroom around the corner, she could be sure that this tour would not turn out very long.

* * *

“We didn’t miss fall!” Jane screeched as they landed in the front garden. Before Thor could so much as pick up their suitcases, Jane had jumped into the mounds of colourful leaves that covered just about everything. Grinning, he ducked from whole armfuls of leaves being thrown his way as Jane started to kick them around, laughing at the rustling she caused.

“Oh my God, that reminds me – we have to look at cluster stars completely differently!” Jane shouted, pointing at a tree almost bare of leaves. She looked back up at the branches, a miracle in golden autumn sunlight. “And solar flares!” Eyes closed, she inhaled the crisp air as deeply as she could. “Gosh, someone’s using a fireplace already.”

It had been impossible to hide from his mother that Jane was expecting. Anyone could see the difference in Jane’s ready smile, the magic that spoke out of her gaze, her way of moving, the way her mind worked with the brilliance of creation itself doing somersaults in a valley filled with raspberry jelly. She now stood completely still, gazing up at the trees crowned in hues of sap green, gold, amber, orange and apple red, the beauty of a whole afternoon’s sunset filtering through them. He gave her the minute to appreciate the view before he slowly went over to her and put his arms around her waist, lightly nudging her cheek with his nose.

“Shall we go inside?” he asked quietly, but it startled Jane either way.

“It’s odd,” she said. “I thought I was overly sensitive before. Now everything’s just so _bright_.”

He wished he could have shared those impressions with her, but to see them reflected in her face as she looked at him was quite mesmerising on its own. Clearly her Infinity Gem had some side effects, too, but as Jane could not sense any difficulties caused by it, he was in good hopes that its magic would help Jane. She seemed to have a very natural grasp on something that was so far from science, from anything her species knew. But then, something told Thor that it was her scientific view on the world that gave her this perspective. “Maybe it’s because I ask nicely, and don’t expect anything out of the logical,” she had once said to him, not without a certain trace of reprimand below her mocking tone. Somehow that made a lot of sense, too.

“I wanna stay,” Jane said more to herself than to anyone around her. She seemed to have forgotten that he was there. Thor put it on the list of things to get used to during the next months. Still, the situation’s newness did not mean he was without means to handle it.

“Aren’t you hungry?” he asked slyly.

Jane’s eyes widened. “Like a bilgesnipe on a cabbage soup diet.”

All of a sudden she blinked, sinking heavily against him, as far as “heavy” was a word to use for her fragility. Thor took the hint to scoop her up into his arms, and Jane gratefully snuggled up against him. So sleepy again.

At this rate, it would be more than simple to hide the surprise a little longer from her. Thor had checked and double-checked that they would return precisely this evening of November, a date Jane would not recognise.

The night before her birthday.

* * *

It was official: Best Husband In The World was going to be a title reserved for one person for the next handful of millennia to come.

“Shut up, I’m sure I can prove that you bent space to carry that much food upstairs,” Jane chuckled while she made sure Thor wouldn’t have to lift quite so heavily again on his way back. The best thing about breakfast in bed was when one shared it with someone wonderful, but it was even better to snatch the most delicious pieces from each other. Jane had her priorities when it came to Nutella fillings in cupcakes.

Thor shrugged, “It is easy to move toward my universe’s source of gravitation.”

Jane felt herself blush. A lot of people wouldn’t have understood Thor’s words as a compliment: that she was the centre of his world.

While he brought the breakfast trays back to the kitchen, Jane felt a magnificent drowsiness overcome her. It had been such a beautiful morning so far: overcast and foggy outside, she and Thor had taken a lazy shower before he had disappeared in the kitchen to prepare their breakfast. The kittens used their chance to sneak their way onto the lower end of the bed where they usually were not allowed to sleep, but Jane let them just this once. She felt Thor crawl back under the covers next to her minutes later and draw her into a lose embrace. Jane made a half-hearted attempt of snuggling into his arms, too tired and content for any more. It was one of those rare moments with the blankets just in the right place, not a single cold toe, pillows perfect, and just the most comfortable pose ever – how she wished she could have framed it to relive forever.

A light kiss on the tip of her nose made her lift her eyelids, heavy as they were. She was rewarded with the familiar sight of Thor’s face in front of hers, smiling sleepily at her.

“Are you happy?” he asked quietly.

“I’m warm, I’m full, I’m in bed,” she listed slowly, “research is going great, I’m pregnant and married to the best person in the universe, and you’re smiling.” She felt a broad smile spread over her own face. “There’s really no way I could be happier.”

“Happy birthday, Jane,” Thor said, his smile broadening as he leant over to kiss her again, this time a little longer. As much as she wanted to stay, Jane wound herself out of that kiss, meowing miserably:

“No! Why would you remember that? Now I have to remember your birthday and I’m gonna forget and – I don’t even know when it is –“

He wanted to kiss her again, but a look at her narrowing eyes taught him better. Instead, Thor said:

“This is a mere coincidence, but I can’t deny that it suits my purposes quite well.”

“Purposes?” Jane asked, not sure if she should be miffed about having been spoilt rotten again, or laugh about Thor’s pompous choice of words.

A mischievous glittering lay in his gaze when he said:

“What would you say to the thesis that it may just be possible to make you even happier?”

“Does it involve food in some way?” Jane asked.

“No.”

“Bad chance. Cuddles?”

“I hope for some, but not directly, no.”

“Stars?”

“Ah,” he grinned. “You’re onto something.”

As much as she’d have loved to stay put, her curiosity got the better of her. Jane sat up groggily, took a moment to wake up a little more, then took Thor’s hand as he helped her to get up.

He guided her downstairs to the library where on the couch table lay two boxes, one expertly gift-wrapped, the other clearly from outer space in all its prettiness, and a card. She wanted to take the card first, but Darcy’s voice from the door said:

“Nah, not the reading first, boss. This time you gotta start with the big box.”

Jane looked back at Thor, who sometimes was better at interpreting when Darcy made no sense. He laughed, then said:

“Indeed there is a story to this. Please have a look at the bigger parcel first.”

Jane sighed when she saw the imprint on the wrapping paper. With the size of the box and the name of Wanda’s fashion label on the paper, this could only be one thing.

It was, as it turned out as she opened the cardboard box. It was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen.

Dark blue and black silk with hints of purple, stitched with minuscule patterns in silver and gold, and colourful sparks in between. The fabric was a perfect representation of the night sky as to be seen from Earth, no, from here, from their house.

“Took me a while to embroider,” Darcy said.

Jane felt her jaw drop to the floor. “ _You_ made that?”

“No biggie,” Darcy shrugged. “Wasn’t that complicated after all. Just dots and more dots.”

“Thank you!” Jane tried to say, but her throat was too dry. She wanted to hug Darcy, but the latter pointed at Thor. “His idea. Wanda wasn’t very happy to get such a detailed description before her first draft.” When Jane tried to hug Thor without creasing the piece of art in her hands, Darcy smirked: “And look who’s suddenly so grateful for a new dress.”

“Open the other present!” Thor interrupted, barely able to stand still. Jane laughed, suddenly quite nervous as to why she got a birthday present from people who didn’t celebrate birthdays.

The casket itself already looked priceless, all golden and beautifully engraved. When Jane opened it, however, the sight of the items inside made her gasp.

“I can’t – that’s too –“ she tried to say, but Thor was already behind her, arms slung around her waist and chin resting on her shoulder.

“Mother insisted that you have it. You are a princess now, you may want to look the part.”

Want maybe, but could? Jane had to remind herself of breathing as she took in the beautiful set of jewellery consisting of earrings, an elaborate necklace, bracelets, and to top it all, an ornate tiara, all made of heavy gold with gemstones of white, amber, lilac and blue.

“The constellations of home,” Thor murmured into her ear as Jane shyly traced the vaguely star-shaped patterns of the tiara with her index finger.

“And don’t say you’ll never have an opportunity to wear it,” Darcy added. She handed Jane the card.

Jane’s stomach did an ugly flutter as she tried to open the huge envelope without ripping the paper, letting it fall to the floor, or accidentally fling the whole thing against Darcy’s forehead. If this was an invitation to some party the sort of she had never gone to in the past… but that didn’t make sense. Why would they put it into a birthday card and be all mysterious about it?

“That’s cute,” she said at the sight of the very glittery card featuring a most endearing kitten. “Not cuter than you, of course,” Jane added toward the very real kittens meowing at her from the doorway.

Inside the card lay a folded sheet of paper, surrounded by birthday wishes from quite everyone she knew – such an amazing amount of people that Jane finally understood why the card was so big. “Well done!” was part of most of the messages, and “Nobody deserves this more than you” was also featured several times. Odd for a birthday card. Unless…

“WOULD YOU FINALLY OPEN THAT LETTER!” Darcy had written at the bottom of the card. Jane shrugged. Complied.

Needed to sit down.

“Oh my God,” she breathed.

“You okay, boss?” Darcy said, pouring her a cup of tea. She had obviously prepared for the worst. Well. One didn’t win a Nobel Prize every day.

“But why would – how – I didn’t even –“

Darcy handed her the cup of tea, but Thor put his hand underneath hers before Jane could spill it all. “You’ve deserved that thing for everything you’ve published for the past three years,” Darcy said in a voice that allowed no counterarguments. “I’ve asked everyone. Even Tony agreed, when Pepper gave him a stern look.”

“Just believe us for once that you are, indeed, brilliant,” Thor said with a quiet smile. “Your whole world is telling you.”

He offered her the cup of tea again, but Jane shook her head. “I’m fine.” She wanted to get up, do something, anything to fill that complete blankness in her mind – and sat down again. “Maybe not.”

Thor laughed, reaching for a small plate on a side table holding a very smudged, half-burnt, entirely lopsided cupcake. The candle in it stood at such a sad angle that it upheld the whole construction, physics be thanked.

“Aw, Darcy,” Jane said, biting back a laugh. “You shouldn’t have.”

“I really shouldn’t,” Darcy replied. “Visibly so.”

Jane took a bite of her cupcake, which didn’t taste quite so bad after all, hugged Darcy and Thor as strongly as she dared, walked a handful of rounds through the room, picked up the cats, tried to stay out of claw reach while said cats indicated openly how little they appreciated being picked up, walked back to the couch table and picked up the letter again. This time Thor caught her before she could drop to the ground.

“I just don’t know what they gave it to me for,” Jane said when she felt a little less dizzy. “My research on Einstein-Rosen-Bridges… oh.” It wasn’t for that thing, but for the little essay series she had written about merging physical formulas with the visual concepts Thor’s people used for depicting scientific facts. “But that was hardly any research at all!” Jane yelled, sending the cats running out of the room in shock.

Darcy rolled her eyes. “Except ever since then, everybody’s started to use your method and it’s the best thing since chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream candy?”

“Say that five times,” Jane replied.

While Darcy was busy repeating “chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream candy”, Jane walked over to where the tea pot stood, still contemplating her letter. “I’m fine, really,” she said when Thor appeared next to her. This fainting thing was so embarrassing.

“Has Helen won?” she asked, suddenly startled by the notion that she had completely forgotten her friend.

Darcy said, “How could she not win?”

“Rumour has it that she was nominated in every category, including literature,” Thor chuckled. “That novella she wrote has become quite popular.”

Jane said gravely, “You’re kidding. There’s no novella.”

“No, there isn’t,” he winked. At least something she could be relieved about.

“Just so you know,” Darcy added, “we wanted to tell you earlier, but you’d just gone on your honeymoon and Thor said you had that no-talk-about-work agreement, and essentially it was all his idea, so yell at him.”

“I hope you do not mind,” Thor said with a smile that could have softened Steve’s shield. “There is very little time to prepare now, but you seemed in need for a little time without anything making you nervous.”

As usual, he was completely right with that assumption, and usually this would have been an excellent reason to yell. But not with this wonderful, perfect man. Who knew just how she loved her tea, after all.

“Oh God… there’s so much to do…”

She walked around the couch table, counting the things she had to prepare on her fingers. “There’s gonna be a speech, and the opening lecture, and…”

“Sit down, boss. I like that tea cup a bit too much to see it hit the floor.”

“I’m fine!” Jane gave back, but tried to breathe a little more calmly anyway. While Thor and Darcy wrapped up Jane’s presents, she went to the other end of the library to read her letter once more.

“Honestly, Jane, sit down!” Darcy said.

“Still fine,” she replied.

“No, really –“

The next time Jane fainted, it was onto one of the floor pillows Thor had kicked into her direction moments before. So that was why they had chosen the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've noticed quite a drop in the click numbers during the past weeks. Hope it's not the tasertricks fans, for Darcy's story arc is about to get going at full throttle with the next chapter, and they'd miss that... *smug kitten face*
> 
> As always, feedback would be lovely!


	45. Chapter 45

“Darling, I’m home!” Steve shouted through the apartment as he put the keys into the bowl next to the door. “What’s for lunch? I’m starving!”

Instead of Sam’s superb housewife impersonation – a special treat, as he cooked rarely for them (Bucky did most of that, with Steve’s assistance) – there was no more than a feeble “hello” from the kitchen. Steve kicked his shoes off and stood behind the stove within seconds.

“Are you okay?” he said, unable to keep himself from adding: “Wow, that smells amazing.”

Sam merely gave him a tired smile as he stirred the champignons in the frying pan. Steve put his chin on Sam’s shoulder to get a better look. So long as there was a thick sweatshirt between them, Sam didn’t mind the touch.

“That’s the salad.”

“Love your idea of what a salad looks like.”

Sam only kept stirring the vegetables, effectively keeping them from cooking.

“Where’s Jay?” Steve said, remembering that Sam had wanted to see her for the weekly meeting with their counselling group.

“With her aunt. I think.”

“Didn’t she say?”

“She was very quiet after the meeting.” Sam finally put down the ladle. “She told her story at the meeting.”

Too overwhelmed to say anything, Steve just stared. Often Sam had suggested Jay to speak to their group, or at least talk to Barbara, their therapist, in private, but nobody had believed that she would do so in the years to come.

“Was it bad?”

“Horrible.” Sam leant on the counter. “I don’t know how that woman could stay sane with everything she’s seen in all those centuries. How she can still believe in humanity.”

The swearing Steve mumbled was not something he’d have used in front of Helen. He put his arms around Sam’s middle, giving him a firm hug.

Speaking of Helen…

“Oops, sorry,” the doctor said, disappearing into the hallway again. In some faraway corner of his mind, Steve remembered that she had been trying on her dress for the Nobel Prize ceremony with Wanda this morning, but right now, this wasn’t of importance.

“Let me finish lunch, okay?” Steve said when Sam politely, but firmly wiggled out of his embrace.

“I thought you were hungry,” Sam snarled.

Rolling his eyes, Steve dialled the number of the pizza delivery.

* * *

Jane never knew how she felt about the whole excitement of winning a Nobel Prize later – for the first time, anyway. The speeches and lectures were one thing, but the gala itself, the parties, those she forgot largely. Thor made sure not to leave her side, and as Helen for some reason chose to appear without a partner, the three of them attended the major events together, which was great. Of course all of their friends visited, Tony making sure to throw the biggest party around. Still, on the big evening, Thor insisted to have a private picnic with Jane under the stars, at the outskirts of the city where some actual stars could be seen in the sky. It was ridiculously cold and very, very romantic, which was what Jane would remember for the rest of her life.

The long, quiet time that followed the first week of December felt odd, compared to the busyness of the years before. Maybe it was her pregnancy, or maybe she just had too much time to think. Either way, Jane found her thoughts bouncing back and forth day and night, leaving her giddy and fussy at best, and caught in a whirlwind of memories and ideas all the other times. Pocket wormholes were just one of the results of that time, albeit one she carefully kept secret despite all fussiness.

During the last thirty seconds, Jane had invented shepherds pie cupcakes, a new way of looking at black holes (from inside, basically) and a particularly efficient way of walking down the hallway stairs – all within about fifteen seconds – when another memory shoved those achievements out of the way.

“I wonder what Erik is doing,” she said.

The resulting silence in the room deserved a nickname of its own, maybe “Bill”, or “Brian”. Something starting with a b.

“Telling himself he shouldn’t have copied from you and actually worked a bit on his own? Or simply admit he doesn’t have any ideas of his own anymore and retire?” Darcy said, walking into the kitchen. “He was so sure to get the prize this year, with his book doing so well… not anymore.”

“Erik’s written a book?” Jane asked in astonishment.

Darcy rolled her eyes. “Honestly, where do you live? Oh wait. You actually do live beyond the moon once in a while.”

“You never mentioned it before either,” Thor said to Darcy very calmly. Jane had to bite her cheek to suppress a proud grin.

“Okay, you got me,” Darcy sighed, cheering herself up with a pizza muffin and a hazelnut choc chip cookie. On second thought, she put one on the other and ate the concoction with two bites. Hazelnut-pizza muffins? Jane grabbed for a sticky note. Half the house’s walls were coated with her ideas already, and they had only started buying sticky notes this week.

“Ian told me,” Darcy finally explained as the three of them sat at the table with tea and muffins. “Met him for tea this afternoon.”

“Tea, huh?” Nick smirked, standing in the door.

Darcy mumbled, “Not what you think.”

“Tea?” Beatrice said with a pointy smile, appearing behind Nick’s shoulder.

“Oh for Heaven’s sake!” Darcy went to the refrigerator, grabbed one of the leftover roast beef sandwiches from lunch – paused – shoved a handful of gummy bears from a bowl on the counter between the meat and the lettuce and took a hearty bite. Jane watched Beatrice’s face at the sight gleefully. She knew only one person who had never flinched at Darcy’s eating preferences, and that was Jane herself.

“So how is Ian?” Thor asked in his inimitable way of saving everyone from Darcy playing ABBA throughout the house for the rest of the week.

“Good. Well, out of work since he dropped that thing about Erik, but it looks great on him.” Darcy took the cupcake Jane had just been getting for herself. “I thought I owed him, so I gave him the address of Estefan’s pub. Still owe Esti for pretending I didn’t catch your bouquet at the wedding.”

“That was my cupcake!” Jane protested.

“Oh shut up, you. Just because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean you can hog all the food for yourself now.”

She noticed the stares from everyone else. “What?” Darcy asked. “I thought that was obvious.”

Jane sighed. The only obvious thing was that nothing, absolutely nothing could be hidden from Darcy Lewis’ sharp gaze.

“Is it true?” Beatrice said.

“Yeah, but I’m not very far along yet. We didn’t want to tell anyone before we couldn’t be sure,” Jane growled, trying not to look too guilty. Not wanting to jinx anything was one aspect, but – and this she had only confided to Thor – she didn’t really feel pregnant. Sure, the bump was beginning to show, and yes, she did feel that _something_ was different… but somehow she just couldn’t place that feeling. It was as if the situation hadn’t arrived in her head yet.

She felt Thor’s arm around the small of her back, a sensation even stronger than usual, and it made her flinch a little.

“Do you mind congratulations?” Nick asked with a warm smile, and as Jane shook her head, Beatrice walked over to hug her first, and then Thor, which looked hilarious with his size and all.

“Have you been to a doctor yet?” she asked when they had all knocked back a cup of tea – camomile tea, for Jane had said bye to her beloved Darjeeling.

“I can feel that everything’s alright.”

“Do your mother a favour and get checked, alright?” Nick said. “With your healers, if that’s what you prefer.”

“Uhm – yeah, sure.”

Of course she and Thor had agreed to see the healers, just not now, when everything was still so unsure. Jane at least wanted to spend Hanukkah in peace.

And their peace they had in those weeks, which made Jane suspect that Darcy had spilled the beans to the other Avengers. Just this once she didn’t mind though, because the house had never been as quiet. In any other situation she was sure that Thor and Darcy would have thought it boring, but Jane made sure, mostly involuntarily so, that such a situation didn’t arise. Well, her five new ideas per second did.

“Jane, shut up and sit down!” was what Darcy would yell every ten minutes minimum, while Thor tended to be more subtle about it, calming her with comfortable hugs, fruit-flavoured teas and the most expansive range of delicious foodstuffs any pregnant woman could wish for. The latter in particular worked quite well.

“You’re supposed to not just eat like a bilgesnipe, but to put on weight, too, you know?” Darcy growled one afternoon in early April. “And maybe you would if you didn’t keep scuttling around like a wind-up bunny.”

“That’s not true.”

Darcy’s moods may have improved since autumn, which may have to do with spring finally approaching or having quit her brief position with Loki, the latter hardly visiting anymore either, but that didn’t mean she was easy to bear for a change.

“Unless you drop asleep where you stand, of course,” Darcy snarled. “You could at least give up the football with your super husband.”

“Not happening.”

Running around with Thor in the backyard (not actually throwing or catching any footballs) was the only thing that could clear her head at least a little once in a while, and having magical alien powers meant that Jane could make sure the strain wouldn’t have any negative effects on her or her baby’s health. She _was_ careful. She hadn’t even tested her very own portable wormhole generators herself yet. And if she hadn’t been, there were Thor, Darcy, Beatrice, Nick, the Guptas, the Avengers and the whole of F. Street to tell her to take care, who by now had all guessed what was going on.

To make Darcy shut up, for Jane’s patience had become as short as her attention span, Jane added: “I’m seeing the healers next week, anyway. After my lecture.”

She had started to give speeches at the local university at irregular intervals again, now that Thor had accepted a term-long position as a weekly lecturer. Speaking of whom…

“Look who I met!” Thor grinned as he walked into the kitchen, Jay by his side. Jane hugged the little bird, then went to kiss her husband.

“How was work?” she smirked.

“Good,” he grinned back. “How was your morning?”

“Excellent. The cats are so happy about their improved backyard door, I’ve updated it with some of the stuff from the pocket wormholes.”

“That’s nice,” he smiled, fully used to the fact that wormholes and all sorts of devices producing them had become a common occurrence in House Foster of late. There was a shortcut between their parlour and the kitchen now, very handy.

The pocket wormholes consisted of small devices the size of Gamora’s communicators which could transport a person to a certain point in space and back. So far Jane had built one that would bring its owner to the observatory, and one that made the way back to their front garden. It was easier than travelling through the observatory itself all the time.

“They always do that dialogue,” Darcy growled at Jay. “They saw it in some tacky romance movie.”

Jay chuckled, but didn’t comment. She accepted a cup of tea from Darcy and moved to sit around the kitchen table with the others.

“By the way, we saw your performance on Saturday,” Jane said, quite proud of herself to remember such a thing. “It was excellent.”

“Thank you,” Jay said, blushing to the roots of her feathers. “It was only a small dance though.”

After her stunning show at Jane’s and Thor’s wedding, Darcy had made sure that Jay’s talents as a dancer received the publicity she deserved, with the result that she was now booked for TV shows, modelling, and there was even talk of a tour.

“I’m still not sure what to make of it all,” Jay said. “I love dancing, but it seems… with such big audiences and all…”

Darcy sighed. “Darling, every world-class choreographer in the world wants to work with you. Go grab that chance.”

“Actually, that’s not the decision for which I’m here.” Jay took a deep breath. “I’m leaving.”

“What?” Jane couldn’t stop herself from saying. It was clearly what they all thought.

“I’m going on a pilgrimage.”

Jane’s jaw dropped. Thor looked perfectly bewildered, probably not sure if he had understood that word correctly. Darcy said:

“I’m fetching Nick.”

The latter appeared on the doorstep not even a minute later, wearing tweed slippers and one of Darcy’s self-knitted sweaters, a fashionable number in black and grey. Nick had ogled her very distinctly before Darcy had given up on the bunny pattern.

“Now what is going on here?” Nick asked as he firmly shoved a fresh teacup for himself out of the cupboard.

“Jay wants to leave.”

“I want to – I will be a pilgrim,” Jay said with just as much perseverance. Now, Jane was glad the little bird had finally found the courage to stand up for herself, but why for such a thing?

“What do you mean?”

“There’s a lot of things I’m not sure about,” Jay continued, “things that I must be sure about. I need time, time to pray, to go to places, find out what – what is my way in this world.”

Quietly, the truth just sinking in, Jane asked: “How long will you be gone?”

“I don’t know. As long as it takes.”

“No,” Jane gasped before she could stop herself. “I mean – sorry…”

“You certainly are ambitious,” Nick commented. It only made Jay blush again, not happily this time.

“That is also something I do not wish to be any longer.”

They tried to discuss a little more, but it seemed to no avail. Jay had made up her mind. At some point Jane excused herself, running into her lab more than walking while she tried to put back some order into her thoughts. Not seeing Jay for who knew how long, her little cousin who was so much like a sister…

And then, just as she heard the others out in the hallway, a thought struck her. She rushed out to find Jay and pulled her into the library as carefully as she could.

“Have you told Sam?” Jane asked. She wanted to include the others in the question, but Sam really was the most important one.

Jay shook her head.

Jane sighed. “Do you want me to be with you when you tell him? Or someone else?”

Once again, Jay shook her head, but this time she said, “No, thank you. I didn’t want to tell him at all first, but… I think I know what to say now.”

“Well, if you need help –“

“I’m leaving tonight. After I’ve told Sam.”

Jane stared into nothingness, and she was still staring when Jay hugged her awkwardly and left the library. Even when Thor came into the room to take her into his arms, asking her if she wanted to lie down, Jane could not reply. It was dusk when the tears finally started.

“Can I have Jay’s steak sandwiches?” she heard Darcy ask.

* * *

“Wheeeeee!”

Gamora did not look up from her calculations as Sif skidded past, did an expert turn at the end of the corridor and landed in an elegant pose on the ground.

“You can message Jane that her pocket wormholes work,” Sif said nonchalantly as she walked back into the spaceship’s cockpit and sank into the co-pilot seat. Gamora checked the last line of numbers on her screen, then calmly turned to exchange a passionate kiss with her wife. Sif knew better than to distract her pilot from her coordinates.

“Did you find it?”

Sif nodded, producing a smooth, palm-sized stone that glowed in the darkest shade of silver Gamora had ever seen. Despite Sif’s closeness, she could feel the Gem’s innate magic. “Where Sam said.”

Gamora turned back to the controls whilst Sif took the hint to hide the stone in her pocket again.

“Are you sure you want to return so soon?” Gamora asked. “We could tarry a little…”

Sif shook her head. “The sooner we find someone to carry it, the better. Besides…”

Gamora’s hands paused over the controls. She looked back at her companion, lowered her hand, then took Sif’s.

“I am not sure how to proceed with… all this,” Sif said, seemingly unable to find words that expressed what she felt. “The Infinity Gems.”

“Is it tiring you?”

“No – they do, but that is not the reason.” Sif sighed, leaning back in the well-padded chair. “I wish I knew why it is only I who is not subject to their magic. Why it is I who has to guard them.”

Gamora wanted to reply, but instead chose to give Sif’s hand a firm squeeze. Sif continued:

“I can accept that I am not told about my family as far as the past is concerned. But now that there are parts of my present which I do not understand, I wonder if that past may be crucial to continue whichever path has been laid out for me.”

“Do you know where to seek?”

Sif hesitated, then nodded. She looked back at Gamora. “Will you come with me?”

Gamora arched a brow.

“Just because you have that little teleporting thingamajig from Jane now does not mean you should get rid of your very personal chauffeur.”

* * *

The dowager queen couldn’t have looked more pleased with the situation as she guided Jane into the healers’ abode, Thor trailing behind with the facial expression and physical bearing of a lost puppy.

“It’s still pretty early of course,” Jane said.

“Oh, but I am sure everything will be perfectly fine,” Queen Frigga replied. “Just so you see, you are in very good hands here. Do not worry, this will not hurt at all.”

Jane tried not to look too annoyed at being mollycoddled for about the hundredth time since they had arrived, which couldn’t have been longer than half an hour ago. Being pregnant apparently gave everyone the right to treat her like a raw egg, and a brainless one at that, too.

“We haven’t had any message from Jay yet, have you…?” she said.

The queen shook her head. “I’m afraid not. Heimdall has an eye on her of course…”

Jane didn’t reply. There had been news reports of a large bird otherwise known as one of the Avengers from some almost Arctic areas, but no words from Jay herself.

She lost that thread of thought once they entered the healers’ building.

“If you would just sit down here…”

Even to Jane it was clear that the chief healer was particularly nice to her as she had her sit down on some sort of armchair in the diagnosis room. Certainly more comfortable than the “soul forge” thingy she had come to try during her first visit here, and not quite as ridiculous.

“You are indeed with child, your highness,” the healer smiled after having adjusted some controls. Tell me something new, Jane thought. The weather still justified baggy sweaters and big coats, which made hiding her bump so much easier, but after half a year of secrecy, she was growing tired of making such a fuss about it. Or maybe it was simply time to stop pretending that everything was as usual.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Although I hope you will allow us further diagnosis,” the healer said, “you seem in perfect health. And so are your babies.”

Jane blinked.

“Babies?”

She was sure that that was a grin starting to show on the healer’s face. “You are expecting twins.”

Jane looked up at Thor, standing by her side like the model husband he was. He looked back like the slightly shocked and suddenly quite scared father-to-be he had just become.

“Now I hope they do take after me,” Jane tried to joke.

“Glad you agree,” Thor smiled wonkily, no doubt sharing her thoughts.

The healer said unimpressed, “Do not worry, we will help you. I remember very well bringing this one into the world.” She pointed at Thor, who tried not to look too embarrassed.

Quite impressed indeed, Jane replied, “That does make me feel better.”

* * *

“Why’s you so early?” Darcy mumbled in her standard hangover-mode as she opened the front door for Jane and Thor. It was early in the morning, and she seemed to have spent the whole night out again.

“Twins, Darcy!” Jane beamed. “Twins!”

“Overachiever,” Darcy growled.

Jane couldn’t be bothered. The daze she had been stuck in for the last hour still held her quite comfortably.

“She okay?” Jane heard Darcy’s voice, and Thor’s murmured reply as they closed the door behind them.

Yeah, she was okay, or so Jane thought. She was quite sure, in the part of her mind that wasn’t blocked by the memory of her ultrasonic, or whatever the healers called it. She was pregnant. With twins. Twins! If that wasn’t a reason to be a tad dizzy…

When Thor walked into the kitchen, where Jane had gone without so much as noticing, she handed him a cup of tea – the real stuff, a good Earl Grey, not the raspberry-flavoured hot water she was drinking. He took it gratefully, draining the cup in one big gulp and pouring himself another one right after. Jane grinned, reaching up to rub his cheek. She wanted to say something silly, such as “You’re gonna be a Dad!”, but the moment was too beautiful to ruin it with platitudes. She could not stop smiling from one ear to the other though, and as she looked into Thor’s face, the reflection of her smile spread there, too. Without a word needed, they embraced each other, Jane finding her spot where she used to cuddle into Thor’s shirt immediately, their arms in just the perfect position. Love may not be for ever after, but genuine, deep affection certainly was. Their love for each other had only just begun.

The noises from the downstairs bathroom put an unworthy end to the wonderful moment.

“Go to bed,” Thor said gravely, “I will look after Darcy.”

“She really shouldn’t drink so much when she’s out,” Jane said.

Thor hesitated in the kitchen door. “She has not been out much of late though, has she?” he said.

Jane thought about this. “I don’t know… has she?”

“And she seems to have become a little bigger.”

“She eats a lot of cupcakes,” Jane shrugged, trying not to sound too snappish. So far Thor had never dared to make comments about other people’s eating habits, and it wasn’t his place to start now. Jane added: “I thought her face looked rather thin though. Must be that stomach bug she had.”

Thor didn’t say anything. He just looked at her with a gaze Jane couldn’t quite interpret. He knew exactly that she was bad at this sort of thing, why couldn’t he just tell her? Except…

_You’re a scientist, Foster. You can solve this._

“Oh my…”

Jane had run out of the kitchen before Thor could catch her arm. She was about to barge into the downstairs bathroom when Darcy opened door, Jane just so able to stop on the threshold.

“Darcy,” she sputtered in unrivalled scientific subtlety, “are you pregnant?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And if you thought this chapter surprising (Did you? I thought I'd dropped so many hints...), you should wait for what the next instalments have in store for you. Mwahahaha.


	46. Chapter 46

“Shut up,” Darcy mumbled. Maybe not the least valid reply to the question whether or not one was pregnant, Jane had to admit.

“Well… are you?” she tried a little more carefully.

Darcy said with a haughty expression, “So – what if?” She crossed her arms in front of her chest, but did not try to get past Jane. “For all those years we’ve been house-sharing, I thought you’d ask that question sooner. And anyway, it’s not your business.”

Jane exhaled deeply, trying to collect her thoughts. It was Thor, who, as usual, had the sensitivity that saved the situation:

“How about, instead of standing in the bathroom, we go back to the kitchen for a cup of tea?”

Jane nodded weakly, it was all she could do besides trot along as Thor guided her back to the kitchen. He wanted to put his other arm around Darcy, but she walked quicker than the two of them.

“So… do you have any idea who’s the father?” Jane asked, sensing Thor’s growl of disapproval at her rashness no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

“Honestly, Jane?” Darcy said.

Jane felt her patience sigh, flip her off and walk out of the room. “What am I supposed to say?” she squeaked. “Well done, have a cookie? Get well soon? Would you like some pickles with your order?”

“Just because you’re – you’re – you’re Jane Foster,” Darcy spat back, “you’re not entitled to act like my mother!”

“I’m not –“

A look at Thor, who had calmly poured himself a cup of tea, sitting leant back on the kitchen bench, and who was now sipping his tea as if it were a peaceful Sunday morning in the land of boredom, made Jane stop.

“Would you like some popcorn with that?” she said.

“I don’t think there is any left.”

Darcy asked: “Are you two done, can I go?”

Jane took a very deep breath, counted to seven, exhaled.

“I’m sorry, Darcy,” she said as sincerely as she could. She really meant it, but people didn’t always believe that, and Darcy wasn’t just people. “I’m just – worried about you.”

“Worried about me?” Darcy’s voice sounded less than impressed.

“Yes, worried! Have you seen a doctor?”

“The expression is ‘worried _for_ someone’, and you didn’t see a doctor until you grew out of your Avengers suit!”

“I’ve seen a doctor now!” Jane snapped. It was a pity about the suit, a smart outfit in shades of dark blue, with silver accents and some stripes the colour of Thor’s cape. ‘Cause they really were that cool a team. “And I didn’t go before because I’d know if something was wrong, and you can’t!”

“Yes, Mrs Superhero, we all know you’re awesome! No need to mention it every ten seconds!”

Jane found that it was high time that Thor did some of the work. Fortunately, he got the hint before she’d magic him some pink rabbit ears, with front teeth to match.

Softly, Thor said, “Please understand that we are worried, Darcy. Have you thought about what you want to do?”

“I don’t have to.”

Jane asked quietly:

“Does the father know?”

Apparently that wasn’t so bad a question, or at least not one for which Darcy would try to bite her head off. Hesitantly Darcy said:

“It’s Loki.”

“ _Loki_?” Thor exclaimed.

“ _Loki_?” Jane repeated because she wanted to say something cool, even if it was too late.

“Stop saying his name! He’s gonna pop up on the doorstep any moment!” Darcy snarled. Jane was about to snap back, if it hadn’t been for a sudden, harsh knocking at the front door.

“I’m getting it,” she said and stood to go to the hallway.

It was Loki indeed, sporting the facial expression of a mountain troll on a chilli diet.

“Dude, we have to talk about eavesdropping,” Jane snarled, blocking the doorway with the full width of her shoulders. However small everyone called her to be, for the fraction of a second she saw some genuine fear cross Loki’s face. At least he didn’t underestimate her Infinity Gem, nor a female scientist’s resolution to be respected.

“I must see Darcy,” he said, suppressing a snarl just-so.

“That entirely depends on if Darcy wants to see _you_.”

Not waiting for Loki’s reply, Jane turned back to where Darcy cowered behind Thor’s much broader, much more impressive back. Darcy hesitated, looked at the floor, and gave off a feeble nod. Jane stepped aside without gracing Loki with so much as another look before the door slammed shut behind him.

“To the library?” she heard him ask carefully.

“Kitchen. Although the difference really is only if you want books or tea cups thrown at you.”

“I’d opt for books…”

“The kitchen it is.”

Jane indicated the chair in the middle of the long side of the table to Loki. She herself sat down with Darcy on one end of the table, on the kitchen bench, and Thor at the head of it. Everyone glared at Loki, except for Darcy, who gloomily stared at the bottom of her empty teacup.

“We will be wed, of course,” Loki said into the silence. Jane wished she had had some tea, so she could have done some theatrical coughing, but the tea pot had been drained.

“In your dreams,” Darcy snapped. At least she was back in shape.

“Have you two thought for one moment about preventing this situation?” Thor said very calmly. It made Loki twitch, ending up half a chair further away from his brother. It looked as if he had a bad hiccup. Neither Loki nor Darcy stopped staring down at the table.

“Tell me how this could happen, brother,” Thor tried again. “Have the healers –“

“It hasn’t been working properly since the abyss,” Loki murmured flatly, touching the inside of his arm where he apparently carried a similar device Thor had.

Feeling scientifically challenged, Jane said, “If that was a wormhole, no wonder.” Remembering the context of this talk, she quickly added: “You should have had it checked with the healers though.”

“I’m afraid I had other matters to tend to,” Loki growled.

“Yes, and we’ll see the result of those matters in – how far are you along?” Jane asked Darcy.

“I don’t know… seven months, I think.” Under Jane’s gaze, Darcy added, “Maybe eight.”

“Anyway, you should get checked by the healers. Or a doctor, whatever you prefer.”

Loki started again, “I shall make the arrangements for the wedding immediately. We shall -“

“You shall go now,” Thor rumbled in a voice that caused two loud thuds from upstairs, followed by the sound of clawed paws racing over wooden floor boards. The cats had never heard their prime provider of cat food so furious before, and had audibly decided that their basket in the upstairs corridor wasn’t a good place to wait for that fury to end. Jane did not look forward to picking them out of the chandelier in Darcy’s parlour again.

One had to give it to Loki, he did try not to have himself shoved out of the room, but there was little that could stand up to Thor wanting someone very distinctly to leave his kitchen. While the two men went back to the hallway, Jane finally had enough attention to spare on Darcy again.

The poor woman looked terrible, as Jane noticed with a pang of guilt. Awkwardly she put an arm around Darcy’s shoulders, giving her a half-hearted squeeze. Darcy only seemed to make herself smaller.

“You don’t have to make any decisions now, you know?” Jane said. “And if you don’t want to keep -”

“I think I do,” Darcy whispered.

“Okay,” Jane nodded, “okay. You can live here of course, or if you don’t that’s alright, but you really don’t have to leave, you know. And you can –“

“Gimme some space, okay?” Darcy said, shoving Jane away so she could get up from the kitchen bench. Jane wondered if that sentence was meant literally or if Darcy was angry. Where was Thor when she needed someone to interpret for her?

A booming voice from the hallway gave her an answer to that.

“I’ll see to that,” Jane said, leaving Darcy to herself and hoping that it was the right thing to do. It certainly was for the hallway ceiling.

“Be quiet, you two, you’re scaring the cats,” she said as she went to stand between the brothers in the hallway. A galloping sound from the roof became audible in the relative silence. “And our space cow,” Jane added. “Darling, would you please make sure Darcy gets her dinner?”

Thor gave Loki one last look that spoke of anything but dinner, then turned on his heels and went back to the kitchen. Loki visibly relaxed.

“Not so quick, Ramses,” Jane said before she added: “Ancient pharaoh, known to have fathered a lot of offspring.”

“It is a moment in which I will prefer the company even of this Ramses so long as I do not have to face my brother,” Loki had the nerve to smirk.

Jane felt her eyes start to glow in a lovely shade of magical gem. “You do know that between your brother and me, I’m the one you really don’t want to see angry, do you?

“But then, I am not known to choose my company wisely,” Loki said.

“Nor to know how to pay a compliment.”

Loki looked at her in surprise.

“Listen,” Jane said so that only Loki could hear her. “We both know that Darcy is much stronger than you, and that whatever has happened is between the two of you. But.” She tapped her index finger against Loki’s breastplate, the sound oddly loud as it resounded through the otherwise silent hallway.

“This is a situation in which Darcy needs help, and you better make sure to do whatever you can that is for her best. For _her_ best, and _only_ hers. Do you understand?”

Something haughty and undeniably ugly crept into Loki’s gaze as he replied:

“For her best, and for my offspring’s.”

He was out of the door before Jane could come up with a witty reply. The maelstrom of a glittering wormhole engulfed Loki’s shape, and within seconds nothing spoke of the little drama that had just taken place except for some new scorch marks in the already ruined grass of her front garden.

Jane looked up at the roof above her.

“Hey, Birdie,” she said to the alien cow up there. “Good to see you’re still your usual positive self.”

Birdie mooed. It sounded distinctly like a tavern song Sif had tried to teach her once.

“Almost correct, Birdie. Try F sharp next time, it’s more your range.”

* * *

Darcy seemed to have found a new hobby in staring at the bottom of tea cups. Jane was close to telling her that she needed tea leaves to read the future there, or just look at some tea-dripping mess, but she successfully held herself back. Nobody gave her a biscuit for so much self-control, so she just took one for herself. And another one, for having so much resolution.

“I’m gonna marry him,” Darcy said with enough resolution of her own to make Jane’s squeal in embarrassment.

Jane almost coughed up her biscuit.

“Are you sure?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“You have every choice.”

Darcy drew a circle into her stew. She had hardly touched her plate, a definite sign that things were very, very bad. Jane wondered if she could ask for the leftovers, but then maybe that wasn’t a good idea. She took another biscuit.

“I don’t have any family,” Darcy said in a tone Jane had never heard from her. “And I’m not gonna run again. I can’t do that to…” She tapped lightly on her belly.

“What does ‘again’ mean?”

Darcy sighed, but it looked more frustrated than hopeless. Almost angry.

“I don’t even really know.” She put down her fork. “I’ve tried being on my own, and I’ve tried living with you guys. No offense, you’ve done a great job giving me a home and all, but I’m just a hopeless case. Marriage is new. I think. So maybe that could work.”

No matter how much Jane insisted, Darcy wouldn’t accept that she was not a hopeless case, so Jane didn’t. Instead she asked: “You have amnesia, don’t you?”

“Something like it. Sorry if I don’t talk about it.” Darcy took a biscuit, staring at it again. “I just don’t know much, and I prefer it staying that way.”

“Okay,” Jane nodded. The way Darcy spoke, she fully believed that it was the better option. She had tried talking Darcy into seeing a doctor for how long now, five years?

“It’s not like I don’t like Loki,” Darcy insisted, to whom Jane could not tell. “It’s just –“

“He’s Loki.”

“Precisely.”

They shared a smile, even if it flickered and faded pretty soon.

“And you can imagine living together with him?”

“If I get sick of him, I’m sure that palace has enough sofas to send him to,” Darcy shrugged.

Jane wanted to laugh, but instead she said: “You can always come back here.” It was something she had wanted to tell Darcy for a very long time.

“Okay,” Darcy nodded. “Thanks.”

“Stop embroidering my dust cloths though.”

Darcy shouted, “Those were table cloths!”

“Same thing,” Jane shrugged.

For dessert, they scoured the kitchen for everything sweet they could find. While they were finally loading their plates into the dishwasher, Jane said:

“There’s one thing I’ve been asking myself though… how did you two even meet? And don’t tell me you were interning for him, because you were already arguing like an old married couple by then.”

“Did Jay tell you?”

“Yeah.”

Darcy growled, but did not say any more. Finally she replied: “In some forest, in a cave. Hard to explain. You know how there’s portals into other worlds sometimes… I keep finding them once in a while.”

“When you go for your walks at night,” Jane said.

“I thought I’d have my peace and quiet there,” Darcy scoffed. “I didn’t even know who he was when he first showed up. Just an arrogant prick with ridiculous clothes and a bad hairstyle. Well. He still is.”

Jane tried, “Nothing more?”

Darcy shrugged, “An arrogant prick with a bad hairstyle and a lot of sofas.”

“Let’s not forget a cat named Snowball.”

This made Darcy chuckle. “You know, that’s the worst bit. He’s not even that bad, if he weren’t trying to be such an ass all the time. It takes him much more effort than it would if he was good. He just can’t relax.”

“You don’t say! With all those awesome spas!” Jane teased.

“Careful, sweetheart. You’re gonna learn the value of those massages pretty quickly when you start to topple over.”

That was somehow not wrong.

Darcy clearly tried to find as many things as possible to clean up in the kitchen until at some point, there was no way in which she could postpone the inevitable any longer.

“Ready?” Jane asked.

Darcy looked even more pale than she had during the past months, but she nodded. Jane took her hand, then pressed a button on the small device she held in the other. Within seconds, a sparkling wormhole engulfed them, much more gentle than the ones they knew and therefore not as nasty to carpets. Only a moment later, they found themselves outside the observatory. One of the flying boats was waiting.

The gatekeeper complimented them onto the vessel, taking the steering upon himself.

“Aren’t you supposed to, I don’t know, be around when the doorbell goes ding?” Jane shouted over the noise of the wind pushing against the fast-moving ship.

“Not today,” the gatekeeper replied, his eyes on the waters before them and the quickly approaching shore.

Jane felt her small talk duties fulfilled and did not enquire any further.

They met Thor and Loki in the dowager queen’s chambers. The latter looked properly dishevelled, probably from having had a serious scolding from both his brother and his mother. He deserved ten of those, for all Jane knew.

“Oh Darcy, my poor, dear Darcy,” Queen Frigga said, rushing over so she could take Darcy into her arms. It was a horribly awkward scene, and the queen did her best to resolve it by having everyone sit down around an open fireplace as elegantly as possible. Jane made sure to share a sofa with Darcy before someone else, also known as Loki, could claim the spot.

“You have thought about this, Darcy?” the queen asked carefully. “You are certain that you want to be wed? To Loki?”

Ouch, Jane thought. Maybe she did feel a bit of pity for the guy.

“Yes,” Darcy said, to Loki’s visible relief. “But. I want a prenup.”

“An agreement between the people to be wed regarding the protection of both their interests during the marriage, and in case it should fail,” Thor translated in a way that made him sound like a very handsome dictionary.

The queen nodded. “That is apt.” Her tone caused Jane to think back to the story Queen Frigga had once told her, about her agreement with her own husband about the chance to sneak away from her position. It made Jane shiver.

“If I marry you,” Darcy said in Loki’s direction, “it is as your queen and nothing less. I’m not gonna play a hiding game. I want any offspring we have to be your acknowledged heir and successor to the throne, no matter if prince or princess.”

He gave a curt nod. “Done.”

Darcy continued, “I want it to be clear that at all times, I decide how they’re raised and educated.” Loki did not react, just waited for what else she might say. And so Darcy did: “Should I decide that I want to leave you, and take my son or daughter with me, you’ll not try to interfere.”

“Not agreed.” The old haughtiness had crept back into Loki’s face, and no matter how reasonable it might be, Jane wished he hadn’t. “As the father, I have a right to see and participate in raising my heirs.”

Nobody missed the plural.

“So long as I allow it,” Darcy added. Frigga, who had sat down next to Loki, put her hand on his. He seemed to get the gesture.

Darcy said: “Should I wish to end the marriage, you’ll agree to that. It won’t change anything about who’s your official firstborn heir. Should you wish to end the marriage, it won’t happen unless I agree.” Loki didn’t look happy, but gave a curt nod of agreement.

“I can go where I want,” Darcy said, “and do what I want to do. I’ll keep working with Jane and the Avengers if that’s what I want to do.” Loki looked quite blasé about this, but it might have been for show. “Still, as your queen, I demand that we decide about everything together – and that I have a veto you can’t override no matter how spiky you wear your hair.”

At this, Loki blinked in surprise, but Jane couldn’t help noticing the grin Queen Frigga tried to hide rather badly.

Darcy continued, “We both know you’re less than great about making decisions, so this is for everyone’s best.”

Loki seemed to have problems understanding her words, but then he quickly reassumed his fake nonchalance, shrugged and said: “You have gathered experience for a while. I trust you will not fail too hard on the task of being queen.”

“You mean, I’ve run your kingdom for you,” Darcy snarled. Loki didn’t have anything to say to that, not quite as unclever as he was.

She turned to Jane. “This one is for you.”

Jane swallowed down her fear, then nodded. Darcy said:

“Should I ever forgive him something unforgivable – should I use words like ‘he promised he’ll never do that to me again’ – you drag me out of this marriage, no matter what I yell at you.”

Jane nodded, both horrified and relieved. “Promised.”

“Finally,” Darcy said, making Loki flinch, “I want the guarantee that my spa will be reserved for me whenever I need it. Which will be always,” she added with a sour face.

Loki visibly relaxed. “Granted.”

“Good,” Darcy said. “Fine. Let’s get it done with then, shall we?”

Everyone perfectly gawked at her. It was Loki who, to his credit, finally had the courage to ask: “You want to get married… _now_?”

“Why waste time?” Darcy shrugged. “The sooner this is over and done with, the better, right?”

To Jane’s relief, it was Queen Frigga who sighed, walked over to where they were sitting and took Darcy’s hands in hers.

“Darcy, my darling,” she said, “as happy as it would make me to call you my daughter, there really is no need for a rushed wedding.” Gently she tucked a stray strand of hair behind Darcy’s ear. “At least take some time to think it over – and give me some time to find you a wedding dress, will you?”

It was the first time Jane ever saw Darcy being annoyed at the question of fashion.

* * *

If it hadn’t been so sad, it could have been quite romantic a marriage ceremony. Darcy shone in a garment no less precious than Queen Frigga’s very own wedding gown, an ancient and yet seemingly ageless garment of the traditional spring green and gold, loosely cut and easily altered to Darcy’s size. Loki, little wonder, had dressed as finely as any possible. All jokes about fairy glitter and Christmas trees aside, they did look the part of king and queen.

Frigga herself said the words, and as marriage was generally considered a private thing (Darcy’s upcoming coronation being a completely different matter), the quiet little scene taking place in the dowager queen’s chambers that morning ended without any more spectators than Thor and Jane for witnesses. It was better that way, Jane thought as she saw the awkward little kiss Darcy and Loki shared.

“So… have you thought about your honeymoon?” she asked, wanting to bite her tongue off as soon as the question was out. With everything on her mind, the last thing Darcy had thought of would have been her honeymoon.

“Uhm – I don’t think that’s necessary,” Darcy said uncommonly shyly. To Loki, whose arm she was still holding onto, she added: “That’s a custom from Earth where newlyweds go on a holiday together.”

“I know about it,” Loki said stiffly. Of course he would, having agreed to Jane’s and Thor’s honeymoon plans before. “I concur that there is little necessity for such a journey. Unless you fancy one, of course.”

“Can you two go back to yelling at each other?” Thor said.

Darcy sighed, looking way more tired than a bride ever should. “Maybe I should see the healers now,” she said to Frigga. “Make sure everything’s alright.”

“That is reasonable,” the dowager queen nodded.

Jane asked quietly, “Want us to come with you?”

Darcy merely nodded.

The healers seemed to have a spot reserved in their schedule for urgent business, for hardly a moment later, as they all arrived at the healers’ tower, they were quickly complimented inside. Loki helped Darcy sit down on the same diagnostic device Jane had tried before, and he stayed by her side when the chief healer started her work.

“You are in fine health, your highness, except for a certain level of exhaustion, quite natural though,” the healer said to everyone’s relief after a number of tests. “Now let’s just see…”

Jane knew this part. A screen whirred to life, and there it was: a finely detailed ultrasonic. Darcy gasped.

The chief healer smiled, “A little princess, your majesty.”

She had spoken to Loki, whose face seemed frozen. Jane wished she could have done something, anything, but she just didn’t know what. The room had fallen eerily silent while everyone considered what was clearly visible to them: the princess was a Frost Giant.

Unaware of what was happening around her, Darcy whispered with tears in her eyes, “That’s our daughter.”

Loki, letting go of Darcy’s hand, turned on the spot. Jane bit her lip. She knew what was about to happen when Loki stomped up to where Queen Frigga waited, visibly shaken by the news. However, just for once, Loki proved her wrong:

“You have to take the glimmer off me.”

Frigga blinked in astonishment. Loki continued:

“My heir will never be accepted if she looks like none of her parents. I know you and father cast a spell over me so I would not resemble a Frost Giant, even if I was never able to detect it. Take it off. Let me take the blame before –“

“Your highness, everyone in this room knows you’re of Frost Giant descent,” the chief healer said not without a trace of boredom in her voice. “So does everyone in the palace. On this world, if you want.”

As the statement was met with silence, she shrugged and added, “The elders know it to be quite common. This one’s great-grandmother –“ She pointed at Thor. “- was a troll.”

Thor didn’t quite know what to reply to that, but Jane smirked, “Oh, that explains his fabulous shoulders.” To Jane’s shock, the healer winked at her.

“Mother, you –“ Loki started again, but the healer did not seem to be in the mood of letting him finish a sentence today. To Frigga she said:

“There is, however, another matter, your majesty. If you would take a look yourself…”

Queen Frigga walked over to where she could see the healer’s devices. Once more Jane wished badly for the ability to read faces. Whatever Frigga saw there… was it good? Bad?

“Is something wrong?” she heard Darcy’s quiet little voice. So it wasn’t just her after all.

“No, no, nothing wrong,” Queen Frigga replied. “There is just…”

“Mother?” Loki asked warily, but she only patted his arm as she sat down next to Darcy.

“It’s because I’m human, right?” the latter asked.

Frigga said, “Darcy… you are not human.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally there were some lines of dialogue in which Darcy was disappointed in not having a son because she feared a princess wouldn't be allowed to inherit the throne. In the final draft that didn't fit into the outline of the scene any longer, but instead there was the prenuptial agreement between her and Loki.


	47. Chapter 47

“What do you mean, not human?” Jane said more bitingly than she had intended. She just couldn’t help feeling that this remark of Queen Frigga’s was not in Darcy’s favour. If they cancelled the coronation now, they’d get to know Jane from her not so cupcaky side.

“I am afraid that is not a story quickly told…” Frigga began, but she was interrupted.

The gatekeeper, who for such a tall man shouldn’t be able to move so quietly, said: “If I can assist, your highness?”

“Thank you,” the queen nodded.

Thor said, “Mother, maybe a more private setting would be appropriate.”

“Do you know what this is about?” Loki yelled at his brother right away. At least those two were still quarrelling.

“Peace, both of you,” Frigga growled. Thor, poor misjudged little creature that he was, immediately asked:

“What did _I_ do?”

Frigga ignored him. She sent out the healers, then gestured at everyone to sit down together. Jane couldn’t see how this was more private than before, but when Darcy looked at her with a silent plea, Jane understood that maybe it was in her friend’s interest.

“A long time ago,” Frigga said, “there were nine sorceresses. Their magic was so powerful that they stayed amongst themselves, on a remote world whose inhabitants were neither very numerous nor civilised.”

“Earth,” Jane said. She didn’t like her home planet to be called uncivilised by someone who had never lived there, but she could not deny that there was a bit of truth in it, at least for the time more than a thousand years ago.

“Yes. They vowed that their spells and magics were to be for everyone’s benefit,” the queen said, “but what exactly they were doing, they would not reveal. One day, however, they sent their son to us. A most formidable gatekeeper he prove to be.”

Jane had to work quite hard to keep her face from revealing how miffed she felt. They were here for Darcy’s sake, not to hear the origin story of every extraterrestrial and their third terrier.

The queen said, “Still, for a long time we heard nothing – until something terrible took place. We do not know what happened.”

“I could never see them,” the gatekeeper added.

“When my husband and I arrived to look for the sorceresses, we found some perished, others missing. Only their daughter had survived, whom we brought here to raise with our own sons,” Frigga said.

“Sif?” Thor asked, startled.

Frigga nodded. “She never remembered, but when she asked me about her magical abilities around the Infinity Gems three days ago, I had to tell her.”

“She is gone,” the gatekeeper said with a hint of sadness in his voice. “I would tell Gamora where she is, but she said she would just wait.”

Jane made a mental note of visiting Gamora as soon as possible. Poor her, and poor Sif.

“Can I go?” Darcy asked quietly. “I’m not feeling so good.”

“Do you remember your mother?” Frigga said, much to Jane’s chagrin. Darcy wasn’t well, hadn’t anyone heard? She saw Loki flinch, but he stayed where he was.

“No,” Darcy lied unconvincingly enough that even Jane could tell.

“Two of the sorceresses we still know nothing about,” the queen said. “We know now, however, that you are their daughter.”

What the –

“I don’t want to hear this,” Darcy hissed, heaving herself up from the sofa. “Jane, give me that pocket wormhole thingy of yours. And don’t think for one moment to come after me.”

Before anyone could stop her, Jane pulled the device out of the folds of her dress and threw it at Darcy, who caught it expertly. She vanished in a maelstrom of lights.

“Guess we’d better go,” Jane said to Thor. He was about to reply when Loki distracted them all by growling at his mother:

“And I thought you had learnt from my example.”

* * *

He could not stand still, how could anyone? And yet Jane appeared frozen in the hallway of her ridiculous house, eyes closed, as if her magic made the universe spin.

“She is not here,” she finally said. Loki spat back:

“I could have told you that!”

“No, you couldn’t,” Thor said matter-of-factly.

“How do we even know she was ever here?” Loki asked.

“Because the wormhole ends here.”

Loki was about to bark another useless reproach, but Jane’s face made him stop. She had turned to the door.

“She’s getting close the river,” Jane whispered, her eyes widening in fear. To Loki’s frustration, he could see the same expression on Thor’s face – and did not know what it meant.

“Oh no,” Thor said hoarsely. “Ophelia.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Loki snarled.

Instead of a reply, Thor spun round to him, grabbed his arm and shoved him out of the door, right into the unavoidable gust of rain.

“Find her!” he yelled.

Jane was already at the door. “Wait! I can find her quicker!”

“Yes,” Thor said more quietly, “but she told you not to, didn’t she?”

Loki did not hesitate any longer. He ran in the direction Thor indicated, his fine sense of smell distracted by the rain, but still able to tell the approximate direction of a river close by. It could hardly have taken longer than a moment to reach the stream, for a river it could hardly be called, and yet it felt like a decade. Where could she be…

He had only passed one more building when he saw her. She was sitting by the pathetic little river, on top of some steps leading down to the stream’s bed of the liquid stone the humans called concrete. The rain had soaked her hair and dress entirely, and yet she had not looked for shelter, nor tried to shield herself from the elements.

Loki wanted to say something, but for once, the words would not come to him. Carefully he approached Darcy from the side so that she could see him, but if she actually did so, she would not acknowledge. Slowly he approached, hesitated, then carefully put his cloak around her shoulders. Relieved that she did not flinch, but absentmindedly pulled the fabric closer around her shoulders, he sat down next to her.

For a while only the rain was audible over the low gurgling of the stream. Then Darcy said:

“You know, it wouldn’t even be so bad if I didn’t know it was true.”

Loki hesitated before he asked:

“Do you remember then?” She had always said that she did not know about her past.

“No. That is… not really.” Darcy kept staring at something far behind the river when she added: “I’ve had bad dreams all the time, but I never knew what was real and what wasn’t. Now I wonder if any of it was a dream at all.”

He waited for her to say more, but as she would not, he waited for a respectful time, then asked:

“Do you not want to return home?” To the palace, he wanted to add, but did not. Where _was_ Darcy’s home? With him now, of course, but he knew Darcy well enough to be able to foretell that she would see that differently.

“No. I’m fine.”

Now that was a lie if there ever was one.

The rain had lessened into a steady dripping. For Loki’s taste it was a perfect temperature, a welcome bout of coolness after the palace’s summer heat, but he worried for Darcy, especially in the state of health she was now, both physically and mentally. He had to bring her somewhere warm and dry, and swiftly so.

“See, if you come back to the palace with me –“

“No way!” Darcy snapped, finally showing a spark of life again. Unintentionally he flinched. Just when he had wanted to lure her with the prospect of having all of the palace’s spas completely for herself for a whole night…

“There’s no way I’m ever, _ever_ going back.”

He wanted to remind her of her new role as his wife, but then remembered the conditions under which she had agreed to become this person. Oh dear. Little had Loki imagined that this agreement would come into bearing so quickly.

“But –“

“You don’t get it, do you?” she laughed bitterly. “I’m getting it now. I really do. I’m an experiment, no, no more than the result of an experiment, and it’s played out so well.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t you see? That gatekeeper fellow, he was the first. They needed someone with really good eyesight and probably the ability of not having to pee all day, I don’t know and I don’t want to know.”

But that would mean…

“Then there’s this whole stuff about the Infinity Gems, and whoops, here’s Sif who can switch them off simply by touching them. How cool! But that still leaves the problem of finding future queens, and make sure there’d be heirs to the crown.”

She looked at her hands – When had they become so meagre? – glistening silvery with rain in the cold glow of the streetlights.

“Nobody ever thought that I could be alien because I’m short, fat, and now even more so, thank you very much. Like a human. It really makes sense,” she chuckled so coldly, it made him shiver, keeping him from pondering about what she meant with “fat”. Not her usually so lovely figure, surely, scrawny that she was now.

“Finding out about one’s origins, always a great way to spend an afternoon,” Loki said. “I remember how my father finally told me that he had only adopted me for the sake of acquiring another kingdom.” He stopped there. Too much of a memory. “And Sif, too… after so many times, you’d think they’d finally become a little more considerate at telling people about their true heritage.”

There was half a smile on her face as she looked away, a sad smile, and so full of pain. For a long time she said nothing, just looked at the river. Slowly, afraid that it would make her flee again, afraid that he was still not worthy of her trust (he was not, obviously, but what was he supposed to do if Jane and his coward of a brother preferred to stay in their warm nest), he stretched out a hand, touching Darcy’s resting on the concrete as gingerly as any possible. She started, but did not pull her hand away. As carefully as he could, he let his fingers sink down on hers, not grasping for her hand, just leaving it there.

“’Scuse me. You two alright there?” a voice said from behind. Loki had his glimmers in place before one word was spoken.

“Yes, very well,” he said to a short man with an even shorter, but all the more long dog on a leash. “We are just… it was a difficult day.” He had clad Darcy and himself in the illusion of an ordinary human couple, both dressed in black. “There was a funeral.”

“My mother,” Darcy said, her voice thick with tears which Loki somehow doubted to be dishonest.

The man nodded, which was more of a bouncing of his impressive moustache.

“Aye, my condolences, Madame. Sir.” He doffed his plaid hat at them. “Still, with a downpour like this, you’d better get the lady someplace warm. I meselves wouldn’t be out if it wasn’t for old Snoodles here.” He pointed at his silly dog, who did not look as if he was very happy about the walk either. “Do you need a cab? I have this phone thingy somewhere about me, the Missus wants me to have one with all those alien folks about now, you never know. Can’t do more than call home and play solitaire, but maybe we find the taxi number…”

Before the man could fumble the device out of his pocket, and before Loki had time to recall the spell that would turn the imbecile into a plaid-patterned reptile, Darcy said:

“Thanks, but, we’re staying with friends. It’s just two blocks down.” She looked up at Loki. “Would you mind… accompanying me?”

“Of course not. Thank you for your help, Mister…”

“Poodles. Willoughby Poodles, at your service,” the man snapped to attention. “Madame,” he added, doffing his hat once more, “very nice to meet you. Hope the rest of your stay is a bit… more enjoyable.”

Loki gave off a curt nod, then put an arm around Darcy’s shoulders and pretended to turn her away from the fool, while it was actually Darcy who chose their direction and pace. She knew the way back better than he did.

“Oh my God!” Jane babbled when they finally arrived back at the house. Loki, already very good at ignoring humans, chose to do the same in this case. At least Thor had the wits to keep back his wife before she could get on Darcy’s nerves.

Loki only had time to throw a quick spell over her that dried her of the rain before Darcy pulled herself upstairs. Nobody helped Darcy Lewis, future queen and miracle in herself, up a pathetic staircase. Unable to keep himself from a habit many centuries old, Loki turned to his brother with a helpless glance. Thor wordlessly nodded at the stairs with an urgent expression on his face, so Loki hastened to follow Darcy to first floor.

Only when she opened the door to her chambers did Loki stop, noticing that he had no idea how to continue from this point.

“May I come in?” he asked through the open door.

Darcy only seemed to take notice of him now. “Uhm, sure.”

Small as it was, Darcy’s abode shared little of the silly makeshift style the rest of the house carried, except maybe for the library. The decorations were limited to tastefully worked embroideries, and the furniture of exquisite design. None of Jane’s half-dismantled appliances lay around, no cat toys or forgotten teacups littered the floors or tables. There were books on the shelves as well as on careful display on side tables, more books than he would have expected, and through another open door he could look into a study with a desk full of neatly arranged stacks of clear plastic boxes containing Darcy’s beloved sticky notes.

“You have it nice here,” he said.

Darcy, about to enter what would be her bedroom, hardly took note of his words. “I’m going to bed,” she said. She was about to turn away, then hesitated before adding, “You can sleep here tonight, if you want.”

“I don’t want to keep you from getting some rest.”

She did not reply, just turned away. Loki took that for her way of saying “stop squirming and do as you’re told”, because it was what Darcy would say on a good day. Maybe even without throwing anything at him.

Darcy switched on a small lamp on her bedside table, then crawled under the covers, still wearing her wedding gown and all. Loki sat down on the other side where he was close, but could keep a respectful distance.

On a sudden thought at the sight of the light Darcy had not and most likely would not switch off for the rest of the night, he suggested, “I can stay until you’re asleep.”

“’Kay,” Darcy mumbled in a small voice.

She lay with her back to him, hunched up so she looked even smaller than usual, the thin blanket drawn tight around her shoulders – a picture of misery. What could he do? For fate’s sake, what _could_ he do for her?

* * *

When Darcy woke up, it was still night. Damn. She had hoped to sleep through to morning, just once. At least she hadn’t had a nightmare, just this weird dream about marrying Loki and being an alien and talking to a dachshund with a plaid hat, that sort of nonsense. Then she had tried to run away, and Loki, of all people, had tried to console her.

As little as she wanted to admit to herself, and this was something she would never, ever let anyone know, least of all Loki: it had been a nice dream at that point, quite vivid. Somehow she remembered how he had sat with her as she tried to fall asleep and yet feared what the dreams would bring. The very careful, ever so gentle touch of his fingertips as he softly stroked the rim of her ear. Just that. Until she had fallen asleep indeed.

… wait. Darcy lifted a hand, sleepily blinking at the sleeve of Queen Frigga’s wedding dress. Oh no.

Darcy spun around, but the room was empty. So Loki had made true on his promise to wait until she slept and then go to his own room. She could not help but feel disappointed. Maybe she had only dreamt that he had been with her after all.

It was of no use. A glance at her alarm clock told Darcy that dawn was only about two hours away. She did not care much about any more nightmares in the dark, and so she got up to change into something more comfortable. Could you wash alien fabrics? She’d have to ask Thor.

Just when Darcy had placed the precious garment on a clothes hanger at the door of her walk-in closet, she spotted something on the bed. The cover was crumpled where she had slept, and smooth on the other side. On the smooth surface lay a yellow sticky note. She unfolded the small piece of paper and read the message, written in a familiar cubic hand.

“Oh no,” Darcy said again, this time aloud.

She looked at the door of her room. Back at the note. To the door. It could not be helped, could it?

Usually the house was quiet at this time of night, for even the cats did not bother to be about on their mischievous intentions when there was nobody around to secretly cheer them on. However, now Jane’s sleep was as troubled as Darcy’s, it was possible to walk into her when she was on one of her food-hunting trips to the kitchen. Darcy had tried to suggest an upstairs refrigerator, but the logistics were too complicated. Too bad, she thought. Being hungry all the time was the one thing she had not tried to deny about her own pregnancy.

Speaking of which…

“Quiet,” she growled at her own audibly empty stomach as she tiptoed over the hallway floor. Loki preferred to stay in a spacious, if generic bedroom halfway down the corridor. She knocked at the door quietly, aware of how silly this was if Jane should not and Loki could not hear her, then carefully opened –

“Wow!” Darcy ducked as three sparks of green light flew right over her head. Loki crouched in half-sitting position on the bed, hardly awake, one hand raised with which he had cast the spell.

“Oh my -“ he stuttered as his sleep-deprived brain realised what was going on. “I’m so sorry, I –“

“Can I come in?” Darcy asked carefully. It sounded like a squeak, but Loki had better not remark on that.

He did not. Actually, he did not say anything at all, just lifted the duvet for her. Darcy gratefully closed the door behind her, then accepted the offer.

Granted, now they both sat next to each other, Darcy had no idea what to do.

“Uhm… I found your note,” she said, pathetically holding up the piece of paper. _I was always alone_ , the writing said. _Then I met you_. “You could have used one of the bigger notepads, you know?”

“You said you wouldn’t want to waste those,” he gave back.

“Not for unimportant stuff.” She gave him time to process that. Then she said: “And I may not remember much, but I can’t remember ever not having felt lonely. So… maybe we could try being a little less lonely together?”

Not the worst offset for a marriage, was it?

Loki seemed to agree, for he shyly grasped for her hand. She closed the distance between them by wiggling close to him and giving him the kiss he deserved for having been quite sweet.

“Will you stay with me then?” he asked as he took her into his arms, holding her close to his chest with her chin coming to rest on his shoulder.

“Well. We haven’t tried that so far, have we?” she shrugged.

“So you stay?” he asked again.

Darcy couldn’t help but chuckle, “Believe me, if I want to leave you, you’ll know.”

That didn’t seem to relax him much, so she turned and kissed him again. This time he was braver as he kissed her back, one arm around the small of her back and the hand of the other caressing her cheek. Of course Darcy’s stomach took this of all moments to growl noisily.

“Are you hungry?” Loki asked pointlessly, his face almost panicky. “I shall fetch you something –“

He hadn’t even asked what she wanted.

“That’s okay,” Darcy yawned. “I can wait until breakfast.

“But you should –“

“I’m tired, okay?” She snuggled into the pillows to underline her statement. Whatever would make him shut up.

“Sure, uh… I will stay with you of course.”

“I don’t know if you noticed, but this is your room. And you need to sleep, too.”

For a moment he was looking for words, his trouble almost glowing in the dark. Then he said:

“That… is not such a good idea. I have… nightmares. You saw what just happened.” He nodded at the door, where his magic had left three thin scorch marks.

“I know. I’m gonna send you to therapy.” Darcy patted the pillows beside her. “Snuggle up.”

“No, you don’t understand –“

“I do, fully. Do you think I’d volunteer as your personal assistant and not interview your staff about any of your habits?” She yawned. “Now chill. I’m not gonna sleep without someone with me. I get nightmares, too, you know? But it’s worse when I’m alone.”

That seemed to convince him, for he lay down next to her. Darcy, suddenly remembering that this was their wedding night, cuddled up to him until he put his arm around her. It took her a moment to adjust her position so they didn’t breathe on each other (ew, tickly), but then it felt embarrassingly good. Maybe there was something to Jane’s and Thor’s cuddling philosophy.

They’d find out.

* * *

Later-on, Loki would curse himself for not having fetched Darcy some food before she attempted to sleep again. For never having asked Jane how she handled Thor’s nightmares, or his mother for spells that would cure such a thing.

Darcy’s eyes had hardly closed when her nightmares started. Helpless at what to do – he did not want to wake her, not with her thin, drawn face and the shadows under her eyes – all he felt qualified for was to give her space to move. He wanted to stroke her hair, calm her down somehow, but Darcy’s wild shaking of her head made that impossible.

“Darcy…”

He took her hand, but she pulled it away with surprising strength, only to wake up in a half-sitting position with a scream of fear.

“It was just a dream, everything is fine, you were dreaming,” Loki hastened to say. He managed to lightly grasp her shoulders, and she seemed to recognise him.

“It’s so dark,” she said, her voice trembling as much as her whole body did. Loki hurried to switch on the small bedside lamp – where was that switch, such an outdated technology – before he tenderly offered to put his arm around Darcy. She did not even notice his gesture.

“It’s always so dark,” Darcy said again, and now tears streamed over her face. “It’s so dark, and my mother was sick and we had no lights, nothing, and the room was all dark.” She could hardly keep herself sitting up now, but Loki did not dare to offer his assistance again. “It was dark. The whole night. Of all the nights in the year of 1357, that was the darkest.” She tried to speak through her sobbing. ”My mother died that night because she was sick and we couldn’t afford medicine, and I called for help, and it was dark, I knew that she was – and – and I couldn’t do anything, I called for help and none came. Nobody came to help. I had to wait for dawn. In the dark. Alone.”

Her sobs were so strong that her voice could no longer keep up. As Loki once more put his arms around her, she did not object but leant against him. The crying made her shake so much, he could hardly keep hold of her, but he did, as gently as any possible. She cried for a very long time, and he was worried whether she was not overdoing herself, in her condition, too. But finally she grew a little calmer.

“I’m so pathetic,” she said. “I’m so afraid of the dark, it’s so stupid.”

“The darkness is scary,” Loki replied. He did not want to mention his own nightmares. Darcy would make sure he did soon enough, something he did not look forward to.

“You don’t have to keep the lights on just for my sake.”

He snarled, “What if I want it so?”

“That’s your problem then.”

Despite the sting of her words, she snuggled up closer to his chest.

“And now I got your shirt all wet,” she said.

“I borrowed it from my brother.”

She sighed. “Despite everything – and that’s a _big_ everything – remind me that I gotta thank your mom for adopting you all those centuries ago.”

Coldly he said, “I am not asking for forgiveness for what I have done. _Everything_ I have done.”

“Good. Because I’m not giving it.” She looked up at him, and despite the traces the tears had left behind – no, she was still crying – her smile was horrifying. “And you will ask for forgiveness, don’t worry. After all, I will require the assistance of Frost Giant midwives.”

* * *

The sun had barely risen when Jane found herself unable to sleep any longer with all her worries about Darcy. Okay, she was ravenously hungry, too, but she did manage to check on Darcy first before giving in to her famish. Oddly enough though, Darcy wasn’t in her room. The kitchen then?

Jane was just about to go downstairs when, on a whim, she stopped in front of Loki’s room. Nobody replied to her light knock, and as everything seemed quiet inside, she carefully opened the door just a tiny bit.

There they were, Darcy and Loki, lying snuggled up with their arms firmly wrapped around each other, sound asleep.

Jane smiled to herself. She’d bring them some biscuits on her way back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's why Darcy sleeps during daytime, can't be bothered about diets, and was written with a hobby of collecting stationery.
> 
> Obviously writing a proper redemption arc for Loki would require much more time and space in a story, finally making him a main character, and as that wasn't something for this story, I kept it short. Darcy is a much more important character, so I tried to keep Loki becoming good a consequence of her story arc with the notion of what would make him care about someone else so much that for the first time he'd think about doing something for somebody without expecting something beneficial for himself.


	48. Chapter 48

The way Darcy slouched over her plate at the breakfast table, she looked like she hadn’t slept in days, which probably wasn’t too far away from the truth. Still, to Jane’s positive amazement, Darcy ate like a grizzly for the first time in months, leaning against Loki and allowing him to feed her particularly tasty bits. Despite the sting marks of dried tears on Darcy’s face, Jane didn’t ask what had happened last night. If Darcy was eating, things were okay.

Loki couldn’t have looked more different either. Instead of his trademark expression of blasé boredom and haughtiness, he was so focussed on making sure that Darcy was alright and equipped with everything she wished for, reacting to every gesture of hers like an anxious puppy, that he almost forgot his own breakfast.

In the general atmosphere of tired laissez-faire, Thor was the only one clearly enjoying himself while he fried, baked and assembled a feast for them. He had successfully averted all of Jane’s tries to help, or at least do some actual baking, by carrying her to her chair and placing a plate heaped with French toast, pancakes, sausages, fresh fruit, and the inevitable assortment of pickles in front of her. Finally Jane had enough and pulled him back to the table, where Thor seemed to realise for the first time that he was actually hungry.

“Oh God…” Jane growled as she smelled Thor’s cup of coffee.

“Decaf,” he said, holding the beverage out to her.

Jane bit her lip. “Better not…” Decaf or no, the smell was heavenly. She quickly leant over to sniff the delicious aroma, then sat back, closing her eyes with a sigh and waiting for Darcy’s snarky comment.

“Mmbl,” aforementioned comment said.

“And for once she’s silent. Thank the Lord!” Jane cried to the ceiling.

Darcy snarled, “Since when are you the sassy one?”

“Someone’s gotta be, now you’re gonna be queen and all.”

That seemed to make Darcy think. “Oh.”

Maybe it was only her fatigue that stopped her from replying though, for not much later, Loki gathered a dozing Darcy into his arms and carried her back upstairs. While she and Thor cleaned up the kitchen, Jane heard someone who did not seem to like doorbells very much knock at the front door. She effectively outran Thor to the hallway and opened – to stare into Gamora’s face.

“Oh my God, come in!” she said, stepping aside. Only then did she notice Sif a few steps down the garden path.

“Do you mind?” Gamora asked with a face that spoke of sorrow.

“Why would I? Now come inside!”

If Gamora looked sad, Sif’s expression could have made the Sahara cry. Jane quickly closed the door. Gamora said:

“I am so sorry for bothering you. We do not want to interrupt, I heard that Loki is staying…”

“We know what happened,” Jane said. “Loki’s here because he’s taking care of Darcy – long story – because of the same thing.”

“You know?” Sif asked incredulously.

“I’m sorry,” Thor said quietly. “We were there when Darcy was told. Do you know that she is your sister?”

Sif nodded. Jane looked back at Gamora, who stared at her, but she could not quite interpret what Gamora tried to say.

“Uhm… why don’t you and Sif take a walk in the garden?” Jane asked her husband. “The cucumbers should be ripe.”

From the fact that she did not even snarl something insolent at the mention of cucumbers, it was obvious how much Sif was in need for help. Quietly she trotted down the downstairs corridor with Thor, and only Thor’s arm around her shoulders made sure that they made any pace to speak of. Jane showed Gamora into the kitchen.

Despite the warm day, Gamora kept her hands closed firmly around her cup of tea.

“She came back some hours ago. She has hardly spoken,” she said. “I did not know what to do. She did not want to stay at her home, she just wanted to run.”

“Yeah, we have another one of those,” Jane said with as subtle a growl as she could manage. “You can stay here, if you want. Darcy seemed better this morning. It’d be good for them both if they had a talk.”

“Where is Darcy?”

“Upstairs, sleeping, I think. But I’m sure that if she isn’t up by lunchtime, Loki will bring her.”

For the first time Gamora’s face showed something that wasn’t grief:

“Since when does she – does she – not yell at him?”

“Since they’re married.”

“ _What_? You are kidding! Why?”

Jane had never been a gossip monger before, mostly because she hadn’t known anything everyone else hadn’t known a long time before her already. She hadn’t expected to miss out so much.

“Darcy is pregnant and Loki’s the father,” Jane said smugly.

“Oh. Well. That’s not really news,” Gamora said.

Distracted by her disappointment, Jane missed how Gamora’s face clouded again. Only when she followed her gaze out of the kitchen windows, where Sif and Thor could be seen as they slowly disappeared behind a grassy hill, did Jane understand.

“Do you think she will recover?” Gamora asked quietly.

“I don’t know. I hope so.” Jane sighed. “They’ve been best friends for ages though, so if anyone can do something for her – apart from you,” she added quickly, “it’s Thor.”

Gamora nodded. “How bad is it for Darcy?”

“I don’t know,” Jane said again. As much as she was relieved about Darcy and Loki being so close, she couldn’t help feel disappointed that she couldn’t do more for her friend. If even Loki was better at consoling Darcy, there was little more to be said. “She’s had a rough time. Her whole life. If there is recovery for that, it will take a whole long time.”

“Do you think she will be well enough to see Sif today?”

Jane blinked in confusion. “Uhm… I hope so.”

“Good,” Gamora said, her voice strangely cold. “Sif needs some grounding.”

Jane knocked back the rest of her tea. One did not mess with the wife.

* * *

“See, the vegetables need to be cut in regular pieces, but the direction doesn’t matter,” Thor explained, expertly turning a bell pepper into a salad ingredient. “In contrast to meat, where you cut with the fibre, not against it.”

“Are you explaining cooking to your cat?” Sif asked unnecessarily, for Thor stood at the counter facing the kitchen window, Meteor balancing comfortably on his left shoulder, while he prepared the salad.

“It helps me focus,” Thor said. “You should try it. Although you shouldn’t carry your bilgesnipe on your shoulder,” he added with a smirk.

Sif looked almost back to her usual shape, Darcy thought. That hadn’t been the case as of an hour ago, when Loki had woken Darcy with the news that her sister had arrived. There hadn’t been much of a family reunion as they had gone downstairs where everyone waited over ice cream chocolate and lots of colourful fruit arranged prettily on large platters. No reason to wait with lunch, of course. The standard hug, then Thor had advised everyone take their time to get used to the situation. Maybe he had just wanted to get on with the cooking. Darcy didn’t mind that way of thinking.

She sat in a comfy nest of cushions and blankets in the corner of the kitchen bench, probably the best place in the house and definitely the throne from which to rule the kitchen. If there was a way to get used to the thought that Darcy would be crowned queen sooner rather than later, it was this one. Comet, the other cat, seemed to agree, for ze had sunk into the small space between Darcy and Jane to her right, looking quite the cat-faced draught excluder. Jane tickled the kitten under its chin, which caused Comet to turn onto zans back, now a draught excluder with four paws wiggling in the air. Realising that this was a bad position to acquire nibbles from Darcy’s generous hand, Comet did a wonky back roll, almost fell to the floor, but just so managed to regain footing on Darcy’s blanket and sit down on the spot, chin resting on Darcy’s lap.

“Your cat is weird,” Darcy said. “Hasn’t let anyone get close for years, and now all this snuggling?”

“Cats know when someone needs their attention,” Jane said. “And before you say it, yes, I’m taking notes.”

Darcy grinned, but continued to scratch Comet’s head between the lynx-like ears. Mm, fluffy.

“Any more?” Loki asked quietly to her left, offering her some orange slices. He was annoyingly attentive, so much that Darcy didn’t even mind. It was nice to be the centre of attention, definitely. It was even nicer having someone who made sure she got all the food and rest anyone could wish for, all day and night, too.

“Ophelia!” Jane suddenly shouted. Gamora dropped a blueberry that bounced happily over the table and straight into Comet’s mouth, Meteor fell into the sink half-filled with water and bounced straight out of the room, and Darcy’s mood bounced straight into foulness.

“Did you know Shakespeare?” Jane asked, grasping for the edges of the table so as not to tumble down her chair in excitement.

Darcy rolled her eyes. “I knew Hamlet. Or the guy who played him at opening night.”

Jane nodded, quite the Sherlock Holmes now. “That’s why you know all this sewing stuff. You’re – you’re like from Jane Austen.”

“From a Jane Austen _novel_ ,” Darcy corrected. “I didn’t know Jane Austen though.”

“Is Darcy your name?” Sif asked brusquely. Darcy quickly put a hand on both Loki’s and Jane’s arm before either would attempt to turn Sith on Sif. She’d like to get used to the thought of having a sister first.

“I’m Number Seven, as you’ll know,” Darcy said curtly. Sisterly feelings aside, there was no need to be plushy in this matter. Sif should have regained the memories by now which Frigga’s magic had blocked before. “Darcy is French, d’Arcy, ‘from Arcy’. A place I lived at once.” That much she remembered.

“I thought it meant ‘the dark one’,” Loki said quietly, with a hint of disappointment Darcy found quite amusing. As everyone looked at him in surprise, he added, “I looked it up. You have some books here.”

“That reminds me, I will go to the town library later,” Thor said to his brother. “You will come with me.”

“And before you ask,” Darcy turned to Jane so Loki had no time to switch his old brotherly politeness back on, “Lewis is similar to something I read on the jeans of a guy in the line when I filled in some forms… somewhere. Misspelled it on purpose. So that’s a name I don’t cling to very much.”

“Number Three, how do you do?” Sif said with a grim smile. Darcy returned the gesture. Sisters, after all. She sincerely hoped that, memories returning or no, she would never come to know what had happened to four to six.

“So are you remembering now?” Darcy asked Sif.

“I’m starting to,” Sif replied. “I don’t know if the spell’s the same as yours though. It might simply fade over time.”

Darcy chose not to reply to that. She was sure to be under a spell, but maybe she wasn’t, either. If it came to her, she could do well enough without any more of those memories, especially if they kept returning in the shape of nightmares.

“Excuse me,” a voice interrupted the rather gloomy mood, followed by a knock at the doorframe, “would there be space for two more guests if they bring pastry?”

Jane was on her feet and jump-hugging Nick before he could keep her from doing so. To his credit, he did catch her expertly and adequately to his years of experience.

“Careful,” he said, “in your condition…”

“Just so happy to see you,” Jane beamed, “and you too!”

Sam held up his hands, “Lovely, but no need for any more greetings.”

To beware Sam of any peril in shape of hugging, Nick walked to the counter and handed Jane over to Thor with the words “Here, your wife.” Jane did not protest, which was most likely because Thor gracefully balanced her on one arm whilst continuing to assemble their lunch, feeding her bits and peaces as he did so. Darcy caught herself pouting. She wanted nibbles, too.

While Nick, smart as he was, started to distribute pastry from the large pink box he had brought, Sam asked Thor: “Can I help with something?”

“No,” Thor said silkily, “I’m afraid as a highly valued guest of honour in this house the only thing you can do is sit down and have yourself equipped with tea and food – although, if you want the latter, don’t sit next to any of the pregnant wives.”

“Wait – pregnant _wives_?” Sam asked.

Nick turned, promptly glaring at Darcy.

“Hey, why do you look at me like that?” she complained.

“Because you’ve been sick and insufferable for the past seven months,” he said, “but today, if you excuse my frankness, you look as if you found out who the father is.”

“Wedding night,” Darcy shrugged. Sam stared at her, his jaw about to drop.

“And my beloved brother, now he is a married man,” Thor said loudly over his shoulder, “is wholeheartedly invited to assist me with cooking so as to prepare him for his upcoming tasks as husband and father.”

Loki pouted, “Why would I?”

He complied immediately after a look at Darcy’s face.

“Do you have anything stronger than tea?” Sam asked Thor.

Jane quickly took his arm, “You better don’t ask him that. I’ll find you something…”

“No, Jane, you should rest –“

“I’m the pregnant wife who scares the cats dashing around the house all day if she doesn’t get anything to do,” Jane said. “Just so you know.”

As that was answered by a synchronous meowing from the cats, Meteor just having settled on Nick’s knees, nobody dared to doubt.

* * *

They had found Sam a bottle of ordinary, non-alien beer after all, but he had stuck to tea all afternoon. Now it was late enough to sit out on the rocks by the beach, the sun just about to set after one of the warmest days of the year, to share a drink and talk about why Sam had come to visit Nick.

“You have not heard from her?” Thor asked after they had sat quietly for a while.

Sam shook his head. “There’s the news reports of course. She’s fine. I hope she is.”

“Either way… this was Jay’s choice,” Thor said. “She will know best. She knows where her home is, and her family.”

Sam stared at the waves. After a while he sighed.

“I can’t help but wonder if it’s my fault somehow. Or if I did something… if something happened that made her unhappy.”

“I do not think so.” Thor looked at the sunset. “I have thought about the same thing, a lot of times. Jane was so distraught when Jay left, she still blames herself for not seeing the signs. It took Darcy and me a whole week until she started to believe that it wasn’t her condition that caused all this.”

Sam looked at him warily. “Are you trying to say that I’m telling myself the same thing?”

“We all do.” Thor put his bottle of beer on the ground without having tasted it. Somehow the flavour did not sit well with him today. “And there is no way to prove us wrong.”

“Sure, but…” Sam placed his own bottle next to Thor’s. It was as untouched as the other one. “Unlike all of you guys, I'm the one who had a boyfriend before he met Jay.”

“She always knew that.”

“Yes… and I told her that I love Steve.” Sam lifted his hands in a helpless gesture. “I mean, I’ve told Steve. I’ve told Bucky, I’ve told the postwoman, I've told the friggin’ pigeon that wakes everyone up every morning by picking at the front window.”

“Have you told Helen?” Thor asked, squinting although the sun was hardly low enough.

“Isn’t it more important if Steve has told Helen?” Sam gave back.

Thor nodded. “You got that one.”

“I told her anyway.”

They sighed synchronously, looking back at the sun. Sam said:

“Know what?”

“What?”

“Sunsets are stupid.”

Thor understood quite well what Sam was talking about.

“Boggle night?”

Sam said, “You bet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very belated Happy Hanukkah, and a rather early Merry Christmas to you all, in case you celebrate! And no matter if you do or not, I wish you a very nice rest of the year, and a good start into the new one!


	49. Chapter 49

Time, rest, patience and love had always been amongst the first remedies to be applied to all kinds of pain, especially that of the heart. Thor did not have to be a healer to know that. He had called Steve to take care of Sam, and after a long talk with both of them, was quite sure things would go better for Sam. At least he had left in a much calmer state of mind than he had come in.

That still left Darcy and Loki to take care of, and his own sweet wife, little as Jane wanted to hear that she needed care. Everyone needed care, all the time. It was what kept the heart in good health, and no matter how often Jane denied so, she was wonderful at giving care. It was this beautiful heart of hers he had fallen in love with, and still did every day.

Darcy was making slow progress at recovery, but slow meant slow, and her pregnancy left her additionally weakened. She slept most of the time unless someone woke her for the meals, which stood in stark contrast to the insomnia she said she had suffered from before.

“Catching up on all the sleep she’s missed,” Jane said on early Saturday afternoon. “Though I hope not all the sleep of nine hundred years.”

“Might make for a very quiet first nine hundred years of marriage,” Thor shrugged.

“Anyway… I’ve finished my notes for tomorrow’s lecture, I can stay with Darcy until lunch.”

With the summer vacations about to start, it was much simpler to arrange their schedules so someone was around in case more emergency heartbreak situations occurred at home – just this Wednesday someone (Darcy) had finished the triple chocolate cupcakes when Jane and Thor had been out grocery shopping. During daytime, they also alternated in relieving Loki of his Darcy-sitting duties: he was so afraid that his wife might feel lonely or, worse, wake up from a nightmare with nobody to comfort her, that he refused to leave her side unless Jane, Thor, or at least Nick or Beatrice stayed with her. Something had decidedly changed ever since Nick’s and Loki’s game of chess. Thor credited Nick, fully. Someone who had managed to not go mad with the whole of the Avengers around didn’t flinch when teaching a Loki some respect.

“Good,” Thor said. “I will go on a walk with Loki.”

“Has he learnt to fetch sticks yet?” Jane smirked.

“No, but he hasn’t tried to bite the postman for ringing the doorbell and waking up Darcy all week now.”

“Clear progress.”

Going for a walk was a good plan in many ways: Darcy did not stay alone, Loki would see daylight again, Thor had a sparring partner for his morning workout, and Jane would be obliged to rest quietly for some hours. She wasn’t quite as giddy as during the first months of her pregnancy anymore, but this just meant that she worked with even more focus and energy now. Where Darcy was sleepy and weak, Jane only became more enthusiastic than ever, and it didn’t matter whether it was her scientific research, her baking, or inventing new games to play with the cats. She had kept her own bouts of sleepiness though, and they never happened anywhere convenient. Only last Monday, Thor had found Jane curled up in the upstairs cats basket, Comet and Meteor not looking particularly happy about their guest. “I miss Jay,” Jane had whispered as he woke her. They all did.

“Hey, look,” Jane said, handing him her phone where a news site was visible. “Jay’s about to cross the Himalaya.”

They always checked the news for something about their cousin, who had become a worldwide media phenomenon no matter how remote her travelling routes. Thor wished Jay would have contacted them herself, but this was better than not knowing how she was at all.

“How about we have a movie night just for ourselves tonight?” Jane whispered. Technically, with Loki and Darcy dozing in Darcy’s suite most of the time, they had every night to themselves at the moment. This would change soon enough though, with several families moving in as of next week whom Beatrice’s numerous charities were still searching homes for at the moment, or whenever one of their friends decided to drop in. Every minute, Natasha’s wilderness of red hair might block the front door window, or Rhodey wanted to enquire how the cats were doing. It seemed the house was becoming some kind of holiday abode for the Avengers, and nobody minded.

“What do you want to see? Would you like to borrow Darcy’s box set of Pride and Prejudice?” Thor grinned, letting go of the frying pan for a moment and grabbing Jane to pull her into a gentle kiss.

“Ew!” she giggled, certainly not referring to the kiss.

“Why don’t you like Pride and Prejudice, huh?” he mocked. Of course he knew why. “There is even a Jane in the story.”

“You read it?” Jane asked incredulously. “And who do you think you are, Mr Bingley?”

“There is even a Darcy – a Mr Darcy.”

“But that’s Loki!” Jane insisted. “Oh my God… and my Dad used to sit in his library every day, and my Mom… we’re Pride and Prejudice with superheroes.”

Thor laughed, pulling her back into that kiss. Pride, prejudice, and hopefully just as many happy ends. The kiss Jane gave him in return had little resemblance with anything written by Jane Austen.

Happily nuzzling, nudging and hugging each other, neither Jane nor Thor noticed how the kitchen door opened.

“Uh-oh, looks like breakfast is postponed,” Darcy said.

Jane smirked, “We had to do _something_ while we were waiting for you.”

“Is there food?” Loki asked pointlessly, for the table was laid for four (plus three).

“Yes.”

“In that case nobody cares.”

The aforementioned food guaranteed a quiet meal, only interrupted by occasional meowing from the cats curled up around Darcy, currently the only person passing them scraps under the table no matter how little amused Jane looked at the spectacle. Thor chose to distract her by tenderly stroking her belly, given that she was sitting on his knees, and nuzzle her cheek once in a while. She replied by handing him bits of food over her shoulder, a little joke between the two of them.

Although Loki looked as if he had not slept for a week, he quickly agreed to Thor’s suggestion of training with him after breakfast. Jane and Darcy went to the main living room, so Darcy could nap on a different sofa for once, while the men and the kittens went out into the pleasant morning air.

“Isn’t the heat bothering you?” Thor asked as they passed the lawn behind the house, the kittens having disappeared for long already.

“I have been handling the warmth all my life,” Loki shrugged. “There is magic to control it. I thought everyone did.”

“What you said to Mother… that you want her to remove the spell that keeps you…”

“Hidden?” Loki completed his sentence in an unreadable tone. “I was serious. My daughter will never be accepted as queen if I do not look the part of a… a Frost Giant.”

The difficulty with which Loki so much as spoke the name made Thor say:

“Cheer up. Your looks can only improve.”

“Careful there,” Loki sneered with a relieving amount of his old arrogance, “living with all those petty humans has not improved your scrawniness.”

Thor, noticing they had arrived at the clearing he used for his workouts, gave back, “I can prove the opposite to you right here.”

They spent the next hour in relaxed training: a little wrestling, a little sparring, Thor throwing Loki into a tree and Loki bouncing back expertly to land right behind his brother, the whole kerfuffle starting all over again.

Having washed in a small stream, they chose to rest in the shade of some trees overlooking the beach before the heat would become insufferable.

“I have called Doctor Kapoor’s practice,” Thor said quietly. “The earliest appointment they have would be next month.”

“But –“ Loki started, then fell silent again.

Thor would have wanted to know the rest of that sentence, but from living with Jane he had learnt that it was better to wait until Loki was ready. Jane was a person who wanted to talk about their problems, but had hurdles to overcome in order to do so. Loki was someone who had hurdles, too, but he built them higher on purpose.

“Darcy said it would be advisable to see one of those human healers,” Loki shrugged. “I do not know what they are supposed to be good for if all they do is talking.”

“You’d be amazed… there are healing techniques we could very well learn from them. I am sure that Eir would be interested in having her healers educated here.”

“Maybe she would be more interested in having your head checked.”

Thor looked intently at his brother’s face. “Does Darcy have a specific reason to suggest counselling to you?”

Of course she would.

“She knows of my nightmares.”

Thor looked at his brother in surprise. “How would she not?” Having rooms on the same corridor in the palace had been enough to notice.

Startling a seagull on a rock close by, Loki shouted, “I told her it is not safe, I did! She would not listen!”

“It is safe.” They had often enough witnessed each other’s nightmares when out on a quest. “You never move. I think that’s why you scream: your body is still asleep and won’t move when you try to wake up from your nightmare.”

That seemed to give Loki something to think about, but still he retorted, “A husband who screams at night is still not something Darcy should have about right now.”

Thor shook his head. “She never let Jane or me know about her own nightmares either. I think she trusts you because of the experiences you share.”

“Mother’s expert skills at telling people about their true heritage?” Loki scoffed. Thor did not like the lack of respect toward their mother, but he let it pass for once. They could quarrel about this at their next sparring session.

“For one thing. I think there’s more she sees in you, starting from how you met.”

“Those caves…” Loki frowned. “I never quite understood how she could find them. I thought it required magic. Her mothers were powerful sorceresses though…”

“And she is related to the gatekeeper. She may have a bond with the space gem.”

Loki stared at him. Thor shrugged. It was a simple conclusion to reach, and that Loki hadn’t reached it only spoke for how exhausted he was.

“She will make a good queen,” Loki finally said, his voice quiet in the low sea wind.

“She will.”

“It is just that –“ Once again Loki could not finish his sentence, but this time Thor did it for him:

“Are you afraid that you may not be a matching king?” Loki said nothing, did not even look at him, but Thor found himself smiling. “You know, it would have been the same had I accepted the throne.”

“What?”

“Look at Jane,” Thor shrugged. “She thinks herself inadequate for everything, and yet it is that specific mindset of hers that makes her see things the way they are, and do things the way they should be done. They are very alike in this, she and Darcy. I often thought that was specific to humans in general, but now I wonder if it is not because of Darcy’s upbringing. She has seen many things in her life, even if she does not remember them consciously.”

Looking back at his brother and noticing the lack of hope on Loki’s face, Thor added: “But she needs to learn a lot still. Everything we have been taught, for example. And that she has the right to be who she is.”

“Would that be a right you would grant to just about anyone?” Loki asked carefully. Sincerely Thor replied:

“Do you think Father would have let me go just like that, to deny the throne and live with the woman I love?”

“I did not do that for charitable reasons,” Loki said haughtily.

“Most likely not,” Thor replied. “But a lot has changed since then. Both of us have changed. And I still think that between the two of us, you are the better king, now more than ever. Especially with Darcy by your side.”

“Change tends to come with a price.”

“Yes. Admitting that you were wrong in the first place.” Thor pointed back to the house. “I was so fortunate as to meet a woman who would mercilessly point out all my faults to me.”

“Not as merciless as my wife,” Loki gave back with a bitter smile. They shared a rare chuckle.

For a while, none of them spoke. Finally, Loki said:

“Have you seen how she smiles?”

“I have,” Thor said, not without pride for his brother gaining the trust of a lady as formidable as Darcy. “She is very beautiful.”

“She has never smiled at me.”

Thor sighed. He would have liked to put his arm around his brother’s shoulders, a gesture that was once so familiar for both of them. Now there was this abyss between them, and even if it had started to close a little, his arms still seemed too short to reach over.

“Give her time,” he said instead. “Continue what I have told you to do. Be attentive to her, to everything she does or says. Let her decide in every matter, however small it may be. Make sure without fail that you are worthy of her trust. And don’t expect that you have a right to receive it. Ever.”

As Loki sighed, Thor wished he could have given his brother more encouraging words. “I thought changing, uh, my attitude or whatever you call it… I thought that would do the trick,” Loki said.

Maybe he could give him a little courage after all.

“Change is not a trick, but a long, difficult road you cannot shorten with cleverness or magic. The good thing about it is that you don’t walk it alone though.”

Loki glanced up at him.

“You’re gonna help me?”

“We all walk that road. We should all help each other on the way.”

Letting out a deep breath, Loki said:

“Your friends may think I’m in their way.”

“Only if you are,” Thor replied. “And before I forget: Nick has invited us all for tea tomorrow. He specifically asked that you bring the chess board.”

* * *

They returned after a brief swim in the bay, now pleasantly warm and calm. Thor made a mental note of bringing Jane in the evening, for she loved swimming now that workouts became less of an option day by day.

Thor had hoped to hear Darcy’s gaming platform when they entered the house, indicating that his sister was on the way back to her normal self, but everything was quiet. On the other hand, there were no noises of giddy activity from the laboratory either. When he and Loki peeked into the living room, Thor’s second hope at least was fulfilled: that Jane was resting.

Although they had been very quiet, Jane woke up immediately. Thor knelt down by her side where she lay cuddled up with Darcy on the sofa. It was cool enough in the house for blankets, although in Darcy’s case blankets also served for emotional consolation. Jane spent half a minute trying to extract her arms from the covers, a task additionally difficult because the wide sleeves of her sweatshirt got caught in them, then surrendered and settled with giving her husband a sleepy kiss.

“Is lunch ready?” she asked with a kittenish face. On cue, Thor heard meowing from the door, where the actual kittens had heard one of their favourite words – anything related to food fell into that category.

“I’m just about to start, but I’ll bring you a snack,” he grinned.

She smiled back. “Yay.”

He tucked her back in, carefully, as Darcy had started to stir, not awake yet. Loki had sunk onto his knees on the other side of the sofa to stroke her hair ever so gently, and it seemed to work. Darcy calmed, then woke up – and smiled.

The look of surprise on Loki’s face, quickly replaced by what was the first real smile of his brother Thor had seen in years, was something he swore to remember for the rest of his life.

“Hey there,” Darcy mumbled sleepily.

“Go back to sleep,” Loki whispered, stroking the side of her face. “You and Jane should rest more.”

This only seemed to remind Darcy of Jane, for she looked over her shoulder, then turned to put her arm around her friend.

“Everyone sit down so we can take a picture,” Darcy said, lifting herself to a sitting position easily despite the heavy layers of comfy clothes and dressing gowns safely wrapped around her. “I haven’t done any PR work for ages, but that needs to wait ‘till my hair is back in shape.”

“She’s getting better!” Jane said, grinning and snuggling up with her sister-in-law so they all fit into the photo with Loki and Thor sitting by the side of their respective wife.

“Smile!” Thor said, holding up his phone, and they grinned into the camera.

“I want a framed print for my desk,” Jane said.

Loki asked unusually quietly, “Can I have one, too?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy 2016, those of you still reading! May the new year bring all the best things to you! :)
> 
> Special thanks to Shadows_of_Shemai for geniously thinking of Darcy's obvious connection to the Tesseract!


	50. Chapter 50

An empty plastic bottle of hand disinfection fluid was thrown against a wall, bounced off, and hit Tony right against the forehead.

“Ouch! Three points,” he snarled as he picked up the bottle from the floor, rubbing his head.

“Sorry,” Helen mumbled. She stood leaning against a table in her lab, rubbing her own face –because of frustration, not because a rude plastic bottle had no idea about reading traffic lights correctly.

“One of those days, huh?”

“You have no idea.” The mess on the table behind her spoke of research going nowhere. Being the engineering type, Tony had indeed no idea what to make of it, but he knew similar settings from Bruce’s lab. Similar days, too.

“What can I do for you?” Helen sighed in a way that made Tony very careful of what he was going to say next.

“Uh… I came here because… but it’s okay, doesn’t matter.”

“Tony…” Helen warned.

He held up his left pinkie. “Got a scratch. Need a band-aid.”

It took a lot of courage not to duck at the sight of Helen’s sparkling eyes. “Have you asked Pepper to bandage that? Together with your mouth, preferably?”

“Did that. She sent me to you.”

Maybe he shouldn’t have said that, Tony realised after the words had left his mouth. Pepper was on Helen’s speed-dial.

Sighing again, this time in a way that suggested she had given up on the world, the universe, and everything, Helen pulled a plaster out of her pocket and held it up to him.

“Can you apply that on your own, or do I have to call a surgeon?”

“Thank you,” he snapped, snatching the plaster out of her hand and wrapping it around his finger. She helped him with the second adhesive bit.

“So,” Tony said, trying to pull himself onto the table in his back, remembering what was on it, and then resolving to a comfortable leaning stance.

“Everything… just everything.” Helen looked at her hands in a way that said she was to pour her heart out. Tony wished very much to be somewhere else – he had staff for things like this, for Heaven’s sake – but if he wanted to make it out of here without any more plaster, he better listen. Helen was a friend, after all.

“For once, my job is boring.”

He blinked.

“Didn’t you always like your job? Research, complete freedom in choosing your topic…”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s a dream,” Helen said. “But… I don’t know… I lost my motivation. It’s like… I think it’s like a writer’s block.”

“Have you ever had one?”

“No.”

“Neither have I.” Tony searched his brain for something motivational to say. Then his eye was caught by a number of framed certificates on the wall. “Well, you got a lot to build on. All these things you’ve invented already, I mean, you’re a Nobel Prize winner…”

“Yeah, I know,” Helen moaned, “she’s so brainy, she can do everything. No need to worry about her, or support her, or believe that there’s a whole lot of things she can’t do, and needs help for, and… is an effing sensitive human being, on the side, and during lunch breaks.”

Tony looked at her quite impressed. “You take lunch breaks?”

The expression on her face made him run.

* * *

Darcy took a deep breath, holding the box of cupcakes protectively in front of her.

“Sorry I was such an ass,” she said. “I know it wasn’t your fault, and I shouldn’t have blamed you. Uhm – cupcake?”

“Your feelings were justified,” Queen Frigga said. “And I apologise that you had to find out in such a way.”

Her gaze flickered in Loki’s direction, or at least that was how it looked to Darcy.

“Nah, honestly, it’s fine…”

Darcy did not get the chance to pass around any cupcakes before the queen pulled her into another one of her grantedly really nice hugs.

“And you should not stand around like this, sit down!” Frigga snapped, having a maid momentarily relieve Darcy of the cupcake box and help her to a sofa herself. Bit much, Darcy thought, but it could have been worse.

“But how are you, my darling – do you mind me calling you that?” the dowager queen continued.

Darcy quickly shook her head. She started to understand how Jane felt all the time. “It’s okay. Little bit sleepy, but everyone’s been really nice.”

She gave Loki as much of a smile as she could manage. He looked like he needed every bit of encouragement he could get, the way he still stood in the entranceway of the queen’s reception room as if he weren’t quite sure whether he was allowed to enter. Why didn’t this place have cat doors?

Of course Jane and Thor had offered to come along, but Darcy had declined. They could do with some time on their own as long as they still had some, and besides, she was quite sick and tired of being treated like she had lost the ability to string together a complete sentence. Contrary to Jane, who had morphed into the fussy professor she had always deemed to become, Darcy’s mind ran clearer than ever, even when she was hungry. Which was always, anyway.

“Don’t be shy, tuck in,” Frigga said, pointing at the snacks prepared for them. Darcy could have hugged her, hadn’t she been so peckish. “And you should put your feet up, dear…”

The woman knew her turf. Especially when, after Darcy had dozed through most of the discussions Frigga held with Loki about Darcy’s coronation, the dowager queen hailed her a flying boat to visit her newly found siblings.

It was nice on the bridge, with its ridiculously dramatic sight onto both the city and space itself, the spray of the sea in the wind and not a single seagull dropping in sight. Sif had come, too, and together the three of them sat down on the steps of the observatory, sipping to-go beverages from Earth which a spell of Loki’s had kept warm. Hot chocolate for Darcy, café latte for Sif, and a big cappuccino for Heimdall because one couldn’t not love cappuccino. He did look happy with his drink.

“So… how are we gonna do this?” Darcy asked when she had no more excuses to hide behind a cupcake. Mostly because the cupcakes were gone. “I’ve never had any siblings.”

“No Christmas sweaters,” Sif growled. Darcy had knitted one for Gamora last season.

“But I can knit you sweaters, right?” Darcy asked. “I don’t plan to walk anywhere for the next year, so I’m gonna have a lot of time on my hands.”

Heimdall said, pointing at his head, “Honestly, with this helmet?”

“You can have a matching hat, too, with stag beetle horns and everything.”

He chuckled, then looked out at the sea. “It is nice to have sisters, finally,” he said.

“Yeah, and I always wanted a big bro and sister,” Darcy grinned. “Sorry, Sif. You’re the sandwich one.”

She looked at Sif, who smiled. A strange and rare sight, but it suited Sif so well. Without the need for a word, they put their arms around each other, all three of them. A strange and rare sensation, this closeness. Not being alone anymore, which had never felt right. A strange family, they were. But being with their siblings would not be rare any longer.

* * *

The phone rang. For any other person this may not have been a big deal, but for Jane it felt as if someone had decided to switch on a hair dryer right next to her ears whilst she was having a nap. Well, she had been very relaxed, pondering over her latest theory about how to show directly how darkmatter mattered. Not much longer.

“Aw crap,” she said as she saw the name on the display. This one she couldn’t blip away. “Hey, Helen.” Helen never called. She sent texts, as short as any possible, and would rather travel around half the globe for a personal talk than pick up a phone. “Are you okay?”

“Uhm… guess I just wanted to talk to someone,” Helen’s voice said. She sounded strange.

Jane wrecked her brain about what to say. “Are you coming down with a cold?” Stupid question. Helen had an Infinity Gem, she wouldn’t catch a cold if she tried with a baseball mitten.

“No, sorry… must be the connection,” Helen replied, but it was hardly convincing. Jane bit her lip. Why would anyone call _her_ when they were upset?

“So… how is everyone?”

“I don’t even know.”

Jane waited. Mostly because she was growing frustrated that Helen called her first and then wouldn’t talk to her, and because she knew that it meant she should wait until Helen was ready. She still wished she hadn’t answered.

“Everyone’s miserable, I’m just going with the flow,” Helen murmured.

“Why, what’s happened?”

“Nothing. We’re all just miserable. Wanda is overworked, I have no idea what Pietro does, everyone’s just working all the time I think… Bucky is back in hospital. He went yesterday, his PTSD has become really bad again.”

“Oh no…” Now Jane wished someone had called her earlier. “Can we do something? Should we come visit you?”

“No, you shouldn’t. You’re busy and everything, Darcy isn’t okay… how is she, anyway?”

“Sleeping whenever she can, eating like me, not yelling at Loki so much anymore… pretty good, I’d say.”

“You sure? She’s not okay if she doesn’t yell at Loki.”

“He’s found out that all he needs to do is make sure there’s enough food around.”

“Took him a while. I thought he was the clever one.”

“Many people seem to think that. And still his brother is the professor now.” Not an actual professor, of course, but Helen would understand.

Helen sighed. “Sam is not okay.”

“What?” Jane almost jumped onto her desk. ”What’s wrong with him? Is he sick, too? Is it still about Jay?”

“I think it’s about an Infinity Gem.”

“ _What_?”

Helen took a deep breath before saying: “He’s jumpy and restless all the time, and I make it worse. I’ve tried using some telepathy around him to help him calm down, that sent him straight out of the room.”

Jane hadn’t seen Sam that upset around her, but it had been some time since his last visit, and she had never been closer to him than the other side of the room.

“What do you think this means?”

“No idea,” Helen sighed. “He’s clearly sensitive to magic. I’ve tried to tell him, but he got a headache right away.”

“Oh my God… what are we supposed to do? Have you told Steve?”

“He’s busy enough worrying about everyone, isn’t he?” Helen’s voice sounded strangely flat.

Jane said, “And he still hasn’t –“

“No!” Helen snapped. Jane didn’t need telepathy to know that Helen had understood her question very well. Why Steve didn’t ask her out on a date was beyond Jane’s understanding though.

“Why don’t you come over?” Jane said. “Take a break. It’s not half as crazy here as it sounds.” She saw Comet place a sadly deflated and certainly never to inflate again plastic octopus on the doorstep of her lab. Jane quickly went over to pat the cat’s head for helping her clean up the house. “Well, not any crazier than usual.”

“It’s alright.”

“No, it’s not.”

Helen sighed again. “No, it’s not. But it’s my problem if I’m miserable and I gotta solve it. Or not. Who cares? I mean, the only person still visiting me in my lab is Tony, and his taste in company is questionable at best.”

“Helen, please… you can stay here for a while. We can work together. Really, it’s gonna be great, we could – I don’t know, say mean things about Steve’s shirts…”

“The shirts had it coming.”

“They did.”

“Still, it’s fine. Really,” Helen said in a tone that didn’t allow any questioning. “I’m gonna be fine. Gotta help the others. But it was great talking to you. Thanks for that.”

The call ended before Jane could wish that it wouldn’t. She stared at the phone.

“Darling?” she shouted, knowing that Thor would have heard her on the other side of the house had she so much as whispered his name. It was great knowing she wasn’t the only one with sensitive hearing. “Bad news.”

* * *

She had wanted to stay up and wait for Loki to return, but as always these days, Darcy had nodded off into an annoying half-sleep during which she woke up every five minutes. Dinner may have helped, too.

Remembering Darcy’s standard requirements, the maids had left the candles burning and a jolly fire in the fireplace. These were Loki’s old rooms. He had never used the king’s chambers so far, and Darcy had vehemently refused to move into Frigga’s suite. On top of everything else, this marriage wasn’t supposed to start with separated rooms, and Frigga certainly liked her beautiful, sunny suite.

After a long afternoon chatting and having tea with her brother and sister, Darcy had thought this to be the best place to find her husband, but according to his staff, he had gone to the healers with the dowager queen. Darcy tried not to worry, although she did regret having sent away the maids so early – and not having had dinner on her own. Sitting in the most sparkly flat in the universe didn’t make up for feeling quite lonely all of a sudden, and quite small, too. She wasn’t ready for this. She so, so hoped that everything was okay.

Somehow sleep sneaked up to her again, and with it the dreams. Darcy managed to wake up on her own this time. She wasn’t as miserable anymore as she had been before, well, everything – too afraid to eat, sick, alone, and scared of what those dreams meant. Knowing now didn’t make the situation much better, but a little easier to deal with. She understood how Bucky felt all the time. Poor guy. Maybe she should call him.

Her thoughts of phoning men she wasn’t married to in the middle of the night were interrupted by steps in the hallway. The doors opened quietly, and immediately the candles dimmed, their flames quenched by magic or as Jane would have called it, telepathically transmitted jam pâté crumpets crumble tea. At least that was what Darcy tended to understand when Jane talked science.

There was enough of a glow left from the fireplace to recognise Loki as he slowly walked over to the large couch onto which she had sunk.

“Hey,” she said, reaching out for him, but he only took her hand and sat down on the edge of the sofa, as far away from her as he could.

“I am sorry I let you wait so long,” he said so calmly that it only emphasised how upset he was. He may have put out all the candles, but the light of the fireplace and its reflections from the walls showed enough impressions of colour to confirm what Darcy had glimpsed when Loki had entered the room.

“Mind if I look at you?” she asked in what she hoped was a reassuring manner.

“… yes?”

“Mind if I do it anyway?”

“As if anyone, not the least I, could stop you.”

“True.”

She concentrated very hard on the candelabra closest to them, and it lightened up. “An old party trick,” she said automatically. “Nothing I’d have recommended doing during the Middle Ages. Nor Renaissance, to be historically precise. Now let’s see…”

He flinched. He dared to flinch back from her as she looked at him, despite the gorgeous midnight blue shade of his face, the mysterious markings forming a crown their daughter would inherit. Darcy suppressed a snarl. She’d teach him to be ashamed of his heritage, a heritage he was about to pass on.

“No,” she said coldly, shaking her head.

His gaze immediately froze, a mix of badly hidden shame and that old arrogance of his.

“How many times have I told you _no hair products_?”

He stared at her. “What?”

“Pomade,” Darcy pointed at his forehead. “Ugh.”

“As you wish,” he said curtly, and in a swish of magic, his hair fell around his face clean and soft. Without having to think about it, Darcy reached up to dig both her hands into his soft curls. Mm, like spun silk.

“There. Gorgeous.”

“And… everything else…?” he asked in a flat voice.

“Yeah, that’s nice, too,” Darcy grinned. She sat up so she could kiss him, hands cupped around his face to sense those beautiful ridges, to sink deeply into that scarlet gaze and secretly giggle at the pathetically purple prose her hormones had knitted up for her, together with Loki’s befuddlement.

“Are you… are you happy?” Loki asked when they lay on the sofa together, he behind her back with his arms keeping her safely where she wanted to be.

“That’s… a bit of a big word,” she said. Certainly happier than she had been for as long as she could remember, but then, that wasn’t long. Nightmares excluded by definition.

“It is a strange word for sure,” Loki said. “And maybe it is too early to ask. I am sorry, I should not have –“

“It’s okay. We don’t have to be in love yet. We can get to know each other better.” She could have bit her tongue for having said what she had just said, but maybe it was better that way. Whatever she felt, it was obvious that Loki only acted as gentlemanly (scarily uncharacteristically so) as he did because of duty. Because this was the easiest way for him, too. In that respect, he really did behave very kindly.

“What if… so… so you’re not feeling –“

“Not if, I mean, I’m sorry if this is silly… I’m silly, sorry. Must be the hormones. You’ll find it easier if we just get to know each other a bit better, really.”

“Darcy –“

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have talked about it.”

“I’ve never looked for anyone else. You, of all people, should know.”

Darcy paused. It was true. Not for once since they had known each other had she noticed that Loki had looked for a bride, or rather, had not.

She wanted to say something, but for some odd reason, her chest did not allow anything but a small wincing to emerge. Loki shifted underneath her, wiggling to the side so he could look at her better.

“Please don’t leave me,” he said barely audibly, with a chance for tears. Oh great, now she felt the oceans welling up, too.

“I don’t want to get hurt,” Darcy managed to get out.

“Sorry.” He put an arm around her, but it was shy. “I’m so sorry,” he said.

“I love you,” she finally hiccupped, “and I wanna love you. But I don’t want to get hurt. I don’t wanna get hurt, okay?” Great, now she was crying. “I need to trust you. I must be able to trust you.”

He nodded, fear written all over his face and clearly visible even in the gloom.

“Add that to the list of our prenup then,” she said. “No more lies.”

“I am not known for my honesty,” he whispered, and it sounded strange for its lack of spite. “In fact, I am known for the very opposite.”

“Yeah, but you’re a terrible liar, so why all the fuss anyway?” In a less biting tone, she said: “No more lies about feeling good when you feel terrible, and no more lies about being fine when you need help. No more lies about not being scared of something.”

“I’m scared of not being very good at this.”

“Well, so am I.”

“I’m scared of losing you. I lost everyone once. My brother may have forgiven me, and Mother never quite let go, but I can still see it in their eyes: that old disappointment. That wariness that it may be repeated. Father never looked at me any differently for as long as I can remember.” He inhaled audibly. “I cannot bear the thought of seeing the same expression in your eyes, and I am terrified at the thought of not knowing how I can prevent it from happening. Is that honest enough?”

“Be honest with me. Always. That’s how you can prevent it.”

“I am scared of failing.”

“You said so.”

“Would you… would you help me?”

She wanted to reply yes with all her soul, but her common sense successfully reminded her of the promise she had demanded from Jane.

“If I am capable. If I am safe.”

All of a sudden, a new thought occurred to her. What was supposed to happen? What could possibly happen to her? She could count on the friendship of every single guardian of an Infinity Stone. She would be queen, a position defined by people who with the experience of uncountable millennia had made sure the king couldn’t so much as sneeze without her support (although she would make sure that Loki could take care of that particular task on his own). She was Darcy, she had made it through centuries all on her own, through misery, through living nightmares – through an internship.

Darcy said, “I’ll make sure you won’t fail. Even if you want to.”

He shuddered, but there was a spark in his eyes that may have been hope. Suddenly longing very much for his embrace, she snuggled into his ready arms. She could feel him shiver just as much as she did, because he was just as scared as she was: of the big word “marriage”. Of becoming a family together. Oh, and being king and queen of the galaxy, possibly. But that at least they had already practised.

“Hey. What does Sif use to clean up after her bilgesnipe’s nonsense?” she asked.

He looked at her in bewilderment.

“I do not know.”

“A bilge-wipe.”

To her surprise, he chuckled, gently tucking her hair behind her ear. That was right, he didn’t know most of her lame jokes yet.

Maybe there was a future for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fifty chapters already, oh my!
> 
> As always, feedback is a writer's coffee (so is coffee, but specifying which one's better might result in infinite brewing, err, brooding). ;)


	51. Chapter 51

Jane could not understand how she could ever have disliked the delicious food served at the palace. The last week had been full of work, and guests for whom Beatrice’s charity hadn’t been able to find a home quickly enough. Jane was glad that had worked out now, mostly because she wished those great people she had come to know nothing but the best, but also for the sake of her increased sensitivity to everything around her. It didn’t make a good impression if the hostess was so tense that she snapped at sparrows looking at her through the library window. Especially if she was in the kitchen.

Finally, after a whole weekend alone with her husband which they had mostly spent alternately in each other’s arms and working quietly on their respective research papers, Jane had agreed to fetch Loki and Darcy for their honeymoon. Unofficially they were here to see Sam off, who was training with Sif so long as he could not stand being around an Infinity Gem. Sif had announced quite openly that she thought Sam ought to have the mysterious last stone, but he had asked for time to see if that really was the case, and to get used to the thought with all that it implied. Jane would have been the last person to disagree.

They were just sitting at the breakfast table in what had been hastily refurnished to be Darcy’s solar when Rhodey landed on the balcony.

“Morning, ladies,” he greeted Helen, Jane, Betty and Darcy with an elegant nod. Somehow it had become a joke between them to act as if in a Technicolor movie around the palace. “Had a nice breakfast?”

“Believe it or not, we left you something,” Helen grinned. “How was your morning jog?” Rhodey had asked her to work on some detail of his suit with him. Helen had mentioned that Betty may have some ideas, and so they had come along. Well, in Rhodey’s case at least there certainly were some mother hen feelings for Sam involved.

“Beautiful. Sam sends his regards, he’s back at Sif’s but he says he’d much prefer not to be slobbered by a bilgesnipe every day.”

“Remind me to give one to my husband the next time he switches my notes with a copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice’,” Jane said.

Betty added, “Sure, so he’s gonna teach it tap-dancing in a double act with that alien cow that keeps climbing your roof.”

“And the worst thing is that nothing in that sentence is exaggerated,” Darcy said. She was bravely holding her position whenever her guests were around, but that couldn’t hide how tired she still was. At least she didn’t pretend to be alright to Jane, for Jane had never seen many Technicolor movies and if she had, would never have bothered to schmooze-talk when it came to Darcy’s health.

Apart from still being a bit overwhelmed by the recent events in their relationship, Darcy and Loki seemed to do a good job at becoming a couple. Loki had officially announced his marriage, which had caused broad excitement, together with an explanation for his changed looks, which had resulted in little more than boredom in the audience. Apparently the whole planetoid had known for ages. Now everyone was looking forward to Darcy’s coronation in some months, until which the young couple had taken a break from their duties to have some time for themselves.

“So when’s your honeymoon gonna start?” Helen asked Darcy.

“As soon as my darling husband can be convinced that I’m very well able to stand on my own feet, so long as I can still see them,” Darcy snarled.

“Want me to talk to him?”

Darcy pouted, “You’re just gonna say the same thing.”

“You have to take care of yourself!” Helen insisted.

“I know!” Darcy snapped. “And – what’s so funny?” she asked Jane.

“That it’s not me,” Jane grinned.

The door opened and the two brothers entered, nodding their hello to everyone. With one arm Thor lifted Jane onto his lap, who hardly noticed the familiar gesture. She was far too distracted by the cuddles ensuing, always especially pleasant when Thor came back all relaxed from his workout and shower.

“Hello darling,” he smiled, tenderly stroking her belly (which tickled), “hello little ones.”

“Had a nice morning?” she whispered sweetly. This pointless smalltalk thingy was so simple when the other person was her very own darling husband.

“Nice,” Thor grinned, “but now it’s so much more beautiful.”

Jane was quite aware of the stares they got, but she took her time to enjoy the kiss before she turned to the others with a “What?”. Loki and Darcy, sitting next to each other, looked at her like the non-amused version of the two old guys from the Muppet Show.

“You are aware that you can outdo them, right?” Betty smirked.

Darcy and Loki looked at each other. “Right,” Darcy said before Loki swept her into his arms, leant down as if impersonating the “Gone With The Wind” movie poster, and they kissed quite impressively.

“I’d give this a 5.2,” Rhodey said.

Helen asked, “On a scale from one to ten?”

“5.2 pancakes, because anything below won’t make them stop,” he snarled, much to her amusement.

“It’s hard work keeping yourself fed when you’re pregnant,” Jane said smugly as she helped herself to some sort of pastry filled with a gorgeous fluffed-up caramel-like cream. Her favourite food of the day, much as that kept changing.

“It’s not like you haven’t been eating like a bear before,” Betty winked. “You don’t seem to have any symptoms besides fitting into your husbands sweaters.”

“If only,” Jane mumbled through another bite of the caramel pastry. The one thing almost impossible with an Infinity Gem seemed to be the gaining of some extra pounds.

“We’ve split them up between each other,” Darcy said with a deadpan face, “more economical. I got the morning sickness, swollen ankles and insomnia/fatigue. Jane got fussiness.”

“Who got the moods?” Rhodey asked.

Jane and Darcy looked at each other. “Loki,” they both agreed. The latter replied with no more than a sour face, but a broad smile from Darcy softened his expression.

“Could be worse,” Rhodey said, “my cousin - oh, who’s this?” He looked under his chair. “Is it time for that odd cat pancake holiday again?”

“Snowball, come here!” Darcy said, patting the sofa cushion next to her. A very large, clearly Earth-born, charcoal-grey tomcat jumped into view.

“He’s allowed on the furniture?” Jane asked sceptically.

Darcy snarled, “He’s allowed everywhere, because he’s so tiny and cute compared to the local cats. And everyone feeds him treats, because otherwise he won’t come.”

She fed the chubby cat a little bit of meat from her own plate, successfully ignoring the disapproving gaze from Thor who told her about once or twice a week that feeding cats with food scraps wasn’t good for them. Jane could feel that gaze of his graze her neck, but she resisted the urge to duck. Meanwhile, Snowball had settled on the bit of Loki’s lap not taken up by Darcy.

“And here’s the one person he likes without bribes,” Darcy said.

“I’ll show you why,” Loki snarled. With a shockingly sugary voice, he said “who’s a sweet little kitty”, tickling Snowball behind his ears. Half a hiss later, the cat had vanished from the room.

Betty asked, “If you hate the cat, why don’t you always do that?”

“Between silently bearing the beast’s presence and having to wave goodbye to my dignity, I know where my priorities are,” Loki shrugged. Jane exchanged a quiet glance with her husband. They were sure to preserve the memory of the unique moment in time when Loki gave up his hauteur to coo over a fluffy cat.

Squinting at her husband, Darcy asked, “How many tries did it take you to find out?”

Jane wished she could have helped Helen, Rhodey and Betty with their work or at least spent some hours in the library, but as she and Thor didn’t intend to stay long, she had dress fittings for the coronation to attend, drop by at the healers’ for a quick check-up so she could tell Nick and Beatrice that she was okay, and have tea with Queen Frigga, where she would tell Nick and Beatrice. They arrived in the afternoon.

Frigga insisted early that Darcy returned to her still much-needed rest, not quite by chance asking Jane to accompany her sister. Darcy didn’t mind, and little did anyone doubt that Jane appreciated the chance to leave. They did not have to walk far, and Darcy said that she wanted a long hot bath and a massage, so Jane could as well do whatever she liked.

Although the library was her first choice, a sudden bout of fatigue after all the beautiful cakes and sandwiches Queen Frigga had urged the two princesses to take (as if either of them would have said no to food, not to mention Snowball) made Jane head for the quarters she officially shared with Thor now. It was just as well, for when she came into the main salon, she spotted her husband’s unmistakable shape on the balcony outside.

It was a marvellous sight for sure, the sun having just started to set and the city below preparing to switch to evening business and ensuing busyness. Still, when she looked at Thor’s face, Jane couldn’t help but notice the sadness there.

“Penny for your thoughts,” she said.

“I was just thinking of Father,” he replied. “Being here, it brings back memories. Old worries, questions if decisions were the right ones. Always the same questions, I’m afraid. I am sorry, I was thinking of fetching you, but…”

“That’s fine,” Jane said, leaning softly against his side so as to close the distance between them. They had talked about those questions. “Nick and Beatrice are gonna stay for the night, you can see them tomorrow if you want.”

“No, I meant –“

“And I’m fine, too. Gave me a chance to leave early,” she winked. “Take your time, will you?” She always told him that. She wanted him to know, always.

He closed his arms around her and rested his chin on her head, something she met with the mix of an annoyed squeak and giggling. Together they went to sit on one of the settees put out on the terrace, so as not to lose sight of the sunset. Those could take hours here, and every second was a delight of science in full action.

In this corner of the terrace they couldn’t be seen from the ground, and as Thor had dismissed the servants, there was no need to hold back. She put his arms around him, easily keeping her balance as he leant against her to bury his face in her hair, resting on her shoulder. The sunset and the quietude did their work, and she felt his heartbeat calm to its strong, steady pace quite soon. He wanted to shift, but she did not move her arm, and so he stayed in her embrace while they watched the sun sink below the horizon, colouring the skies in much more vibrant shades of their usual pastels. This last bit had always been Jane’s favourite.

“Wanna go home?” Jane whispered. Realising what she had said, she hastily added: “The other home, I mean, I don’t want to say that –“

“I’d like to go home very much,” Thor replied quietly. It was now that he gently sat up to take her into his arms, nuzzling her face, and Jane returned the gesture. All of a sudden, she felt very tired.

They left that night, leaving a note where they could be found, which was simple enough to guess. It was a good decision, and it was confirmed so when the cats came galloping down the hallway at the sound of the opening front door, vigorously leaning against every shin (or knee, in Jane’s case – they were growing quite quickly now) they could reach. It was the best decision because Meteor didn’t stop meowing until Thor picked up the kitten, and insisted on balancing on his shoulder or lounging on his lap for the rest of the evening. As Comet tried to imitate this by rather clumsily nudging Jane for attention, the night ended with two kittens howling outside the bedroom door until they were allowed to sleep in front of the fireplace.

The next day went by quietly. Nobody who could have called knew they were home, and everyone else knew better than to barge in. Everyone except…

“Someone’s very interested in Nick’s dahlias,” Jane said as she peered through the narrow front door window to see if the mail had arrived. The cats used to bring in the newspapers, twice because they both wanted their chance, but opening the letterbox was still a mystery to them.

She shrugged into a large sweatshirt, the overcast sky and dropping temperatures finally allowing for those again, and went out to Nick’s garden. Thor stayed behind, broomstick at hand, pretending to sweep their own garden path. Or maybe he was actually trying to clean up the front garden after all these years. Like most husbands at home a lot, he sometimes had ideas like that.

“Can I help you?” she asked the two women waiting at Nick’s front porch.

“Melinda May,” the older one of them said. “And Daisy Johnson.”

“Jane Foster,” Jane replied.

“Yeah, we know,” Ms Johnson said with what was probably supposed to be a cool expression, but could hardly disguise her excitement. She probably didn’t meet a lot of people looking like elves.

Ms May quickly said, “We hoped to find Director Fury.”

“Yeah, many people do,” Jane shrugged.

The familiar sound of a column of glitter and rainbow lights, otherwise known as an Einstein-Rosen-Bridge, interrupted their conversation, and a moment later Nick’s voice said:

“Melinda! Good to see you.”

He came into his garden and exchanged a quick embrace with the woman who looked as surprised at the gesture as Jane was. Ms Johnson left it at a shy “hi”, which Jane found very relatable.

While Nick introduced Beatrice to his visitors, Jane looked back to her own garden. Loki was caught in a smirking challenge with his brother, not noticing how Darcy stared over the fence. Quicker than the kittens at breakfast time, she dashed into Nick’s garden, ending up wiggling on her feet in front of Ms Johnson.

“Skye? _The_ Skye?” Darcy asked, gawking at the other woman. “Tech genius, podcast legend -”

“Daisy, but, yeah, I used to be Skye…” Ms Johnson smiled awkwardly. Then her eyes widened in recognition. “Wait. Are you Darcy Lewis?”

“Uhm – just Darcy,” she replied.

“Oh my God! I’ve read all your stuff!” Daisy gasped.

“That may take a while,” Melinda said with a sigh.

Opening the front door, Nick said:

“If I may invite the ladies inside?”

Melinda looked at Jane, causing the latter to jump a little, “If he advises me to wear bunny slippers next, I’ll scream.”

Jane bit her lower lip. Maybe they shouldn’t have bestowed Nick with a full set of guest slippers in the aforementioned design as of last winter.

* * *

All summer he had tried to clean up the front garden, and yet whenever he set out to do so, something happened that would keep him from following his intention: Jane swearing particularly rudely in her laboratory (indicating she was supremely hungry and would not notice), the cats being particularly quiet (indicating they had come up with some new kind of mischief), or something else requiring particular attention (indicating he would be busy for the rest of the day). At some point Thor had started to suspect that the house did not want a clean front garden, what with all the beautiful mess the backyard was.

Either way, he had managed to snarl at Loki until the latter had vanished inside, hopefully keeping the cats distracted from newspaper origami – involuntarily so, given Loki’s stance with cats – and sent a quick prayer to Jane’s God that Nick would manage to entertain his visitors for as long as it would take Thor to sweep the garden path, remove some of the rubble from the past centuries, and keep the shrubs from being impertinent. The latter would be a first, with no plant around the house ever doing what it was supposed to do.

He realised that his prayer had not been very well thought out when he heard the sound of footsteps approach and stop at the garden gate. He looked up.

“Mr Coulson,” he said, using the form of address Darcy had taught him. Jane had told that Coulson had returned, but that did not lessen the sensation of guarded unease this encounter invoked in him.

“Ah, sorry, weren’t we on first name base?” Coulson asked. “It’s been a while.”

“Fair enough,” Thor nodded, knowing it was rude, and not caring about it for one moment.

With a hint of nervousness in his smile, Coulson said, “I should probably call you Mr Foster though, huh? Man, everything changes… congratulations, of course.”

“Thank you.” He recommenced sweeping the floor tiles. Coulson could interpret this however he wanted, so long as this pathway would finally become recognisable for what it was.

After looking on for about a minute, Coulson could not hold back any longer. Not having been invited, he was leaning over the garden door, making its ancient hinges creak pitifully. “I see you’re into housework now.”

“When I don’t know what to do, I work,” Thor cited, straightening up to his full height, turning to Coulson and looking him in the eye. “It is a valuable lesson from someone very wise.”

“Confucius?” Coulson asked.

Thor, who had picked up his broomstick again, turned to the visitor once more. “My wife.”

* * *

Tea at Nick’s was always nice, although Jane kept feeling a little intimidated by his fabulous taste in interior design which, like Nick’s clothing, spoke of an expensive, highly cultivated style. His presence helped, of course, and so did Thor’s when he finally joined them. Without Loki, which was in everyone’s best interest.

“Did you bring Coulson?” he asked Melinda, for she wanted to be called that way, in a quiet moment. It was not an unfriendly question. “Because he is waiting for you outside.”

“You could have invited him in,” Nick said.

“I could,” Thor said, “but he asked me if I knew Confucius.”

“So…?” Daisy asked.

“He means personally,” Jane smirked. “As if you’d look that old,” she cooed into her husband’s ears in as syrupy a manner as she could muster. He chuckled, putting his arms around her and kissing her cheek.

It was odd, how it used to be so difficult to understand other people when she was talking to them, but with some – Thor, Darcy, and sometimes their other friends – she did not have to ask in order to know what they wanted to tell her. Now, as she stood with Darcy in Nick’s hallway about to say bye to Melinda and Daisy, it was one of those moments in which she knew his thoughts, and that he left the choice of how to word them to her.

“Hey, uhm, you can come around for tea whenever you like,” Jane said to Melinda. “We’d be really happy if you did. Just… please don’t let it all end up in some of Coulson’s files, okay?”

“That would be lovely…” Melinda hesitated to answer. It was Daisy’s quiet “… please?” that made her sigh, “Okay.”

“Yes!” Daisy and Darcy shrieked synchronously. “Come on,” Darcy babbled, “I’ve just found this _awesome_ indie band…”

They were out of the door without wishing goodbye to anyone. Melinda said quietly,

“I will adopt her. She is a grown-up, but she has nobody, so…”

“I wish I could adopt Darcy as my sister,” Jane said.

“If she wishes so…” Beatrice’s voice said from behind them. Jane turned to look at her mother, freshly appeared in the corridor toward the dining room. Beatrice shrugged and in return looked at Nick behind her shoulder. “What do you think?”

Nick arched a brow.

“Is this the Scottish equivalent of a proposal?” he asked.

As Melinda’s jaw dropped, Jane put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Yes, it’s always like this here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter consists of scenes I had in mind for a long time, and which would be edited out of a professional novel for not contributing to the plot of the story at all. It's what a movie's director's cut would include, although hopefully better. ;)
> 
> Feedback means buns for tea!


	52. Chapter 52

While summer may have been turbulent, autumn clearly intended to become more of the romantic kind of season. It was a lazy Sunday morning – most of the mornings were lazy now – when Jane set out on the exciting quest of trying another recipe from her great-grandmothers book.

“Are you sure you should be on your feet so much?” Loki asked, annoyingly formal as he always was when trying to be nice to his sister-in-law.

“’Should’, not so much. ‘Can’, yes,” she replied. While Darcy had started to complain about a sore back, Jane had never felt stronger, and the prospect of not putting all that strength in her muscles to use made her incredibly irritable. Her husband was wiser than to pretend he knew better. Loki still had to learn this lesson.

Putting his knowledge to use, Thor simply walked over and put his arms around her midst, peeking over her shoulder.

“What is this?” he asked.

“A cake,” Jane replied with a mysterious grin. She loved surprising him, because he couldn’t read the names of the recipes.

“I cannot wait to try it,” he grinned back. Maybe he had learnt the language and just wouldn’t want to spoil her fun, she couldn’t tell.

She leant against his chest so most of her weight rested in his embrace. It was a very comfortable position for baking, more so because Thor could reach shelves she couldn’t without moving, climbing ladders, or straightforward teleportation. It was the perfect compromise between Thor wanting her to rest and Jane wanting to bake, with extra cuddles for the whole family on top.

“By the way, Jane and I will go out this afternoon,” Darcy yawned.

“Oh?” Loki seemed surprised, and almost a little disappointed.

“We need to go shopping,” Darcy explained. “I’m not gonna walk around in self-knitted sweaters forever.”

Loki seemed to be a little disgruntled that the first thing Darcy did after overcoming most of her shock-induced fatigue was a shopping trip with Jane, for he turned his attention to the latter, saying with the hint of a sneer:

“Shopping? For clothes? _You_?”

“Yes, I,” Jane said smugly, not giving in to the invitation of providing Loki with any more fodder for his prodding. She did not need Thor to step in for her, just as Thor's assistance in acquiring new clothes was his way of making a necessary task a little easier for her, not a try of telling her that he wasn’t happy about her style, or worse, making her wear stuff she didn’t like.

Either Darcy didn’t care about the conversation, or she preferred to apply her own measures. She tried to stretch, winced and held the small of her back. It worked perfectly, as Loki immediately snapped back into caring husband mode by making a completely useless fuss about her.

“You could take a walk,” Jane suggested to the two of them. “The weather is nice.”

Signs and wonders did happen, for Darcy agreed to something akin to sports, and Loki went along with it. Half an hour later, the cake had just started its journey into the oven, the young couple could be seen walking up the hill behind the meadow.

“What is this about?” Thor asked quietly. He and Jane had finally sat down by the kitchen table, basking in the sparse but no less delightful autumn sunshine as it filtered through feathery clouds of pastel grey, blue, copper and gold.

“They need to talk. Somewhere where Darcy doesn’t keep falling asleep,” Jane said.

Thor nodded. There was no need to say any more. Apart from his mother, there was nobody who knew better about the difficulties Darcy was going to face as queen with Loki for her husband. If she wanted to accomplish anything at all, she had to know about everything Loki had done – everything, especially where it concerned his schemes with the Frost Giants.

“It’s time he told her about his nightmares,” Thor nodded. So he had known, or at least suspected.

Darcy and Loki had long disappeared behind the hill, but in front of her inner eye, Jane could see them sitting on an old tree trunk not far away together, Loki speaking hesitantly, Darcy merely listening without any sign of compassion.

“They should have taken a picnic basket,” Jane said. “That’s gonna take a while.”

“Quite right,” Thor replied. “Pointless to wait.” Despite his calm demeanour, Jane could tell from the curtness of his words that being reminded of Loki as he had been before his duties as king and husband had reined him in still hit a sore spot.

“Mm…” Jane was feeling another bout of sleepiness coming up. Waking up at night so frequently took its strain on her. She wrapped her arms around Thor’s shoulders as a bit of consolation, leaning her head against him so he wouldn’t feel embarrassed about being so easy to read. He scooped her up, Jane not disagreeing, and left the kitchen. When she opened her eyes again, they were in the library. Definitely more comfortable than the kitchen bench, those sofas.

She reached for the book she had left on the closest side table the day before… or maybe last week, time being such a wobbly thing.

“’Pride and Prejudice’?” Thor asked with a smirk.

“It’s boring enough to not wake up the twins.”

He sprawled all over his favourite corner of the sofa with his own book – some tome the healers had lent him, Jane didn’t even have to ask what it was about – and left her to her reading. As expected, Jane felt herself drifting off into a half-slumber soon enough. Until…

“Something’s not right.”

“Mm?” She blinked at her husband sleepily. He blinked back, then reached over and carefully pulled her into his arms.

“That’s it,” he grinned. She couldn’t help but chuckle, trying to focus on her book once again, but failing after some minutes when fatigue returned. It would not be a long nap, not these days, except –

“Oh my God, the cake!” Jane shouted, struggling to get on her feet with a body still half asleep and of slightly different weight balance than she was used to.

“Jane, it’s –“ she heard Thor say, but did not listen. She had frozen mid-step, one hand on her belly.

“What is it?” Thor asked, alarmed and already standing by her side.

Jane shook her head. “I don’t know, it’s strange… feel this?”

He put his hand next to hers.

“This can’t be right, can it?” she asked again, panic rising in her voice. She should have listened when they told her to rest more, she should have –

“Well,” Thor said, his face rather astonished, “I don’t feel much, but I think we should consider two new applications for our football team.”

“You think –“

“They’re kicking.”

It was a pity about the cake, but Jane needed to sit down. The sensation faded as soon as it had started, but she wished it hadn’t. This was what it felt like? She could sense the two little heartbeats, two new little realities, but this… this was much more real, to speak completely unscientifically.

Her phone chimed. Had she set an alarm for when the cake was ready, and then forgotten about the alarm, too? She really was fussy these days.

“Darling, would you mind checking for the cake?” she asked, looking at her phone. Thor was about to leave the room when she grasped for his hand. It wasn’t a lucky day for cake.

“From my mother,” she said, turning the phone to him. It showed a picture of Beatrice’s hand wearing a huge diamond ring. “Says ‘Guess who’s engaged’,” Jane added. “I’m gonna reply ‘Guess who just kicked me’.”

Her superhero husband laughed at this while he went out to save some cake.

* * *

“What are we gonna do, huh?” Sam sighed into the sunset.

Helen shrugged. “I’m gonna stay here. Hope one of the aliens falls in love with me, so Steve’s gonna be real jealous.”

Sam said thoughtfully, “Might work.”

“Shut up.”

They sat on the roof terrace of Sif’s and Gamora’s house. Helen had decided that she needed a break from her joke of a love life, and Sam had said he needed a break from being everyone’s favourite patient.

“How are you, anyway?” Helen said, trying not to sound too much like a doctor.

“Better, so long as Sif is somewhere close,” Sam shrugged. They couldn’t have sat like this about a week ago, when he had still been so sensitive for the presence of an Infinity Gem that Sif had had to hold his hand every time Helen or even Wanda came close. They made sure Sam always had at least one visitor apart from Sif and Gamora, so his hosts had a bit of time for themselves and Sam felt a little less a stranger. With the progress he had made already, he might soon be able to return home.

“And how’s Steve?” Helen asked quite a bit more warily.

Quietly, Sam said, “Calm, given the circumstances.”

The circumstances were that Peggy Carter had passed away. Steve had been here some hours before to tell Sam, who had called Helen once Steve had left again, who had already been called by Bucky. She had stayed with Bucky as long as Steve had been gone because he had known her, too, paying her visits until the very end. Finally, it had ended up in Bucky consoling her, not the other way ‘round. He had also suggested for her to see Sam while he and Steve got sufficiently drunk. Of course they were not actually drinking, as that would have been irresponsible with Bucky’s medication. Helen suspected that they were watching “Titanic” together.

“I’m sure I can go home soon,” Sam said. “It’s much easier already.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to try if you can carry the Gem?” Helen asked.

“No.”

“Okay.” It was, it really was. Helen didn’t just respect Sam’s decision, she downright admired it. She had never even thought about having this choice.

“It doesn’t mean I never will,” Sam said, “it’s just that I don’t feel ready to make that decision. If I don’t, I’ll never be like you, Steve, or Bucky. I’ll age faster than you, and all the other stuff that happens to humans. If I do, I’ll never be the same man again, and I don’t know who that is. I’ll switch my family for you guys, and honestly, that choice can never be good.”

“I know,” Helen said quietly. Well, maybe not entirely. She had never felt able to just ring up her sister and suggest a shopping afternoon the way she could ask Wanda, Rhodey, Maria, Pepper, Pietro, Bruce… anyone, really, except for Tony. When she had tried that once, she had ended up with a new sports car about thirty minutes later. With the steering wheel on the wrong side.

She took a deep breath. “I’ve been offered a position here. I’m going to accept.”

Sam didn’t say anything. He just looked at her as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

“Queen Frigga says she could do with another lady-of-honour,” Helen explained, “which apparently is a research position with unlimited budget and support. Betty has told me all about it, and honestly, her research results are amazing. I could work together with her, too, and Bruce wants to come along next month to intern a bit.”

Sam snorted at the prospect of the Hulk in an internship, but his words were sincere: “That sounds like an amazing job. You should accept! But –“ he lifted his hands – “I’m not gonna explain to Pepper. That you have to do yourself.”

“Tony might cry.”

“Don’t tell him.”

Sam leant back as the sunset cast its last strong rays over the roof, taking in the full warmth of the spectacle.

“I’ll make sure Steve knows. Maybe that will give him the push he needs. Honestly, I don’t know what keeps him from asking you for a date. He really likes you. He’s told me.”

“You’re not scared of losing him?”

Sam thought about this, then he said: “No. He trusts me with Jay, and I trust him. Should he ever leave me, it wouldn’t be about you. It’d be about him and me.”

“Why did I have to fall in love with that annoying blondie, why not with you?” Helen said with a rather unconvincing smile.

Sam shrugged. “That’d make quite a long line.”

* * *

The cool winds of autumn had set in, but for once Darcy did not mind. It was the perfect excuse for snugly clothes, cuddles, and hot chocolate at any time – all of which she had now.

“Is there any particular reason why staying at this settlement is supposed to endorse love?” Loki snarled. “Some kind of magic? A spell?”

Darcy grinned. “Would you know a better place for a honeymoon?”

They sat in a small café, enjoying their first day on their own. That, and some really awesome hot chocolate of a density that made the spoon stand up on its own in the cup.

“I know a place where we’re all to ourselves,” Loki murmured suggestively.

Darcy leant against him, snuggling into his warm, woollen coat, “I know that place, too. Too bad there’s no room service in magic caves.”

“They are magical, however.”

“Can that magic cook hot chocolate? Or apple tart?” She asked sneakily. “Lobster?”

“We could find out about that,” Loki said. “In that place where glamours are unnecessary.”

Darcy pouted. “Just a little longer. We’ve just arrived.”

She understood his point. With Loki clearly looking alien now and she herself so sought-after these days – especially since Jane and she had released the news about their pregnancies two days before – it was wiser to go under one of Loki’s spells. The beautiful thing about it was that she could still see him as he was, with his dark-blue face and red eyes. She found the sight strangely soothing.

Soothing or no, the café’s warmth (not so much Loki’s preferred setting either) and the hot chocolate (which he had ordered with ice cream for himself) did their best to make Darcy feel comfortably sleepy. She leant her head on Loki’s shoulder, even if that was a little high up for her to reach.

“May I?” he asked quietly, and as she nodded, he put his arm around her and drew her close. He asked every time before touching her in any way at all now, and while she was sure that one day she’d grow tired of it, for the moment she found it perfect. Mostly because it wasn’t just a phrase: he really waited until she gave her okay. She had tested him.

“Are you tired? Do you want to go back?” he said again as she felt her eyes close.

“Mm-mm,” she said, snuggling into the most comfortable position she could find. Ah. There. “Just enjoying the moment. Your little princess has finally fallen asleep. Here’s someone who clearly doesn’t care about jetlag.”

She was much better now, mostly because as of yesterday, Loki had declared he wouldn’t go on a holiday with her if she didn’t finally see the healers about her many issues – the fatigue, the swollen ankles, the moods. Darcy had retorted that this was what a pregnancy was like… to which the chief healer had replied with a disbelieving face that no, they indeed had a lot of perfectly healthy remedies against her troubles, and that it was irresponsible of humans not to apply the same measures. Darcy had felt a little hurt in her pride, but after the first potion, which had relaxed and warmed her muscles and had given her the first pain-free day since always, she had been more than happy to try the rest, too.

The healers had also asked Jane if she needed anything, upon which Jane had mentioned her fussiness. They had something to help against that, to which Jane had replied that she wanted something to keep it up, not down. _Scientists_ …

“Maybe you will enjoy it more with a little something…”

Loki moved his hand over the table, revealing a small box of immaculate black lacquer. Grinning, Darcy opened it – there were times for modesty, and there was Darcy.

“Oh,” she said. “Simplistic.”

The little box contained two weddings rings, both of a solid golden metal without any decorations.

“Of course these are only suggestions,” Loki said, “but I’d ask you to reserve your judgement for when you have seen these rings being worn.”

“Special effects, huh?”

Darcy stretched out her hand and Loki put the ring on her finger. It fitted her perfectly, had a nice weight, but apart from that the ring stayed perfectly plain.

“Ever noticed that we’re doing this the wrong way ‘round?” she smirked as she turned her hand to get a good look at the ring.

“What exactly?”

“Breaking up, getting married, getting the rings…”

“And falling in love?” Loki asked.

“Mm… maybe,” she smiled sweetly as she took Loki’s hand to slide the other ring over his index finger. Only the moment her fingertips touched the cold metal…

“Ah,” Darcy said. “Special effects.”

She brought the ring into position on Loki’s finger, then turned his hand to look closer at the smooth blue-green gem the ring had become. It was set between two thin rings of the golden metal, but stayed the solid centre of the ring itself.

Curiously, she looked back at her own hand. The ring had changed, too, and like Loki’s it was set between two thin layers of golden colour, but between those consisted of brilliant red gemstones, so expertly cut that they glittered in the mildest light. She let go of Loki’s hand – and the jewels disappeared.

“It took me a while to get the spell right,” Loki shrugged. Darcy huffed, not giving him the compliment he clearly wanted, but wondering when he had found the time to sneak off into his study to work on these intricate spells. She may never have learnt to use her own magical abilities, but she could sense magic when it tickled her fingertips.

“Did you make these before we got married?” she asked suspiciously. Loki didn’t answer. That soppy prick. “Is that your favourite colour?” she added with a grin. The colour of her eyes, clearly.

“Always has been,” Loki replied a little haughtily.

Darcy said, “Did you ask Jane to find out mine?”

Loki’s eyebrows arched sceptically. “Jane? Honestly?”

“Right. Betty then.”

He hesitated. “Maybe.”

“No way!” It took all of Darcy’s self-control not to roar with laughter. They were already attracting attention in the café. “You didn’t start a poll with all the Avengers!” Loki would not look at her. “Oh my God, you did!”

She had to hold onto the table while she laughed, so as not to fall off the padded bench they sat on. All of a sudden though, Darcy grew very quiet.

“You did apologise to Clint, didn’t you? Don’t tell me you didn’t.”

Loki took a deep breath, and from the pure arrogance on his face and the effort it took him to say the words, she could tell that he wasn’t lying: “… maybe I did.”

“ _Do_ you feel sorry?”

“Maybe I do.”

“Did you start feeling sorry after Laura talked to you?”

“Yes.”

Darcy would check with Laura, of course, and make sure that the woman hadn’t let Loki get away with anything less than an hour of a stern lecture. She didn’t want Loki to regret all he had done because of her. She wanted him to regret all he had done because he had done it. It was a step in the right direction, especially as Loki had taken it on his own, but the path was still a long one. He had to walk that path on his own will, and without anyone’s help. But she’d happily kick his ridiculous behinds whenever he strayed.

“Did you bring flowers?” she asked.

“I did.”

“Chocolates?”

“Yes.”

“Did you eat any of the chocolates before you gave them away?”

“No.” Loki cleared his throat. “But I asked for the recipe of Mrs Barton’s apple cake.”

“Did you give it to Jane?”

“I placed it on her desk.”

Darcy looked at him, impressed. “You found space there?”

“Space, time, gravity… and her recipe collection.”

She nodded, appeased for the moment. After all, there would be apple cake.

“What would you think about a little nap now… and dinner somewhere special, later?” she heard Loki whisper quietly into her ear.

“Will there be lobster?” she asked cheekily.

“No,” Loki said, his index finger gently caressing the side of her face, “but there might be flying, luminescent jellyfish.”

“Sounds like a stressful and rather gelatinous dinner,” Darcy said. “But I think we’ll manage.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this instalment. We're actually getting close to the end now, as I'm positive there won't be more than sixty chapters. All the more, your feedback is highly welcome!


	53. Chapter 53

“Sorry,” Jane said, walking into the antechamber where the others were waiting for her. “That speech took longer than I thought.”

“We know,” Helen shrugged. “I mean, that it was longer. And that you wouldn’t know.”

Jane pouted at her. She couldn’t help the fussiness – well, she could. The healers had potions for such things, even if they were largely induced by a certain Infinity Gem. For Jane her giddy state of mind couldn’t have been any more fortunate though: she had never been so inventive in her life. If she couldn’t remember most of her ideas after seconds, that’s what sticky notes were for. Even if they cluttered most of her lab, the hallway, and every inch of wall space behind her bed.

“How did it go?” Bruce asked.

“Splendidly, as expected,” Thor replied as he entered the room.

It had been his idea to launch a scholarship for women starting into science-related fields of education, and Jane could have slapped herself for not having thought of such a thing sooner. He had left everything else to her, but either way, one sentence of Jane’s speech had been “The initial motivation for this project was my husband’s remark that no scientist should ever live off the cup noodle diet again”. Credit where credit was due.

“But even if it hadn’t,” Jane said, “we already got more applications than expected.”

“Than _you_ expected,” Helen smirked knowingly. A lot of the project’s final setup had been her idea, but as she was knee-deep in a complicated research project with Betty, she had delivered her speech via video message. Jane had only agreed to doing her speech live in front of an audience if Helen took the major credits for the whole project, which was only just.

Their conversation was interrupted when the large doors in the other direction opened again.

“Look who’s here,” Sif grinned. Sam and Gamora walked next to her.

“Sam!” Jane wiggled on her feet. “Feel hugged!” She didn’t dare walk over to him before he hadn’t made clear that he was comfortable with it.

“You feel hugged, too,” he grinned back.

Before Jane could say any more, another set of doors opened in best screwball comedy manner and revealed all of the other guests still expected: Wanda, Pietro, Natasha, Steve, Bucky, Maria, Rhodey and Bruce, Pepper and Tony, all of the Bartons including for some reason a parrot on Laura’s shoulder, and finally Beatrice and Nick, too.

It took quite a while for everyone to find a seat, although plenty of space was available, and settle into a comfortable conversation. Clint’s little ones immediately started a game of catch, because that was of course the best thing to do in a gigantic palace on an alien planet they had never seen before. The parrot, a rescue animal named Ernestine whom Clint had found abandoned in a shelter and Laura hadn’t been able to part with, went to sleep. Jane added this to her ever-growing list of proof that animals were so much wiser than humans.

While the collected testosterone of Tony, Clint, Steve and Thor made the air shimmer at the other end of the room, Sam had managed to sneak around to where Darcy had found a quiet spot for Jane and herself, coincidentally situated directly next to the largest snack table.

“Today’s the big day,” Sam beamed, wiggling a little. With a little more practice, he could become as good a wiggler as Jane.

“Thank you,” Darcy said, beating her eyelashes prettily.

Sam gave her a quick sideways glance, saying, “What? Oh, yeah, that, too. But guess what, I’m going home!”

“Well done, you!” Jane grinned.

“I can’t wait…” Sam sighed. “Honestly, I like it here. Nice weather, seven moons – respect. But a decent mac-and-cheese?” He shook his head. “Invaluable.”

“I know,” Darcy growled. “Miss you already. Think of me whenever you eat noodles.”

Jane made a mental note to send Darcy a large stack of instant macaroni and cheese. She remembered that she wouldn’t remember in a matter of seconds, pulled her little notebook out of the folds of her dress, and wrote down what she had thought. What she could do about Darcy missing Sam though, she did not know.

“And here’s Jane Foster not complaining about having to wear a dress for a change,” Darcy smirked.

“It’s a comfy one,” Jane shrugged. Darcy had expected Jane to be delighted at getting to wear sweatshirts as big as she wanted, but to her surprise, the opposite was the case. Jane didn’t actually need maternity clothes yet, but empire waistlines simply fitted better, while sweatshirts had become always either too big or too small for comfort. Some bit was always too tight, some other bit too baggy.

“How far along are you again?” Sam asked.

“Halfway through.”

“Wow,” he said, visibly impressed. “And have you finally decided about the names?”

“No… and we’re _not_ calling them Luke and Leia,” Jane snarled with a sideways glance at Darcy, who sighed dramatically about the waste of such an opportunity.

“ _We_ have already chosen a name,” Darcy said with a sweet smile, “but we’re not gonna tell. We got the marriage certificate and everything though.”

She flicked her ID card out of her pocket. It was one of the new IDs for aliens residing on Earth, and it had Darcy’s full name on it. Which read…

“Darcy _Foster_?” Jane exclaimed.

“Sure,” Darcy shrugged. “I’ve never had a name to begin with, and Loki doesn’t have a family name, but his brother and my sister do. Which is Foster.” Aware of the heavy silence, Darcy added: ”I got called Darcy because I lived in a town of that name for a while. Must have been during Renaissance. Had dress styles similar to this.”

She pointed at the gown she was wearing. This called Wanda’s attention, or at least Jane thought so before Wanda exclaimed:

“Oh my God! Did you know _Da Vinci_?”

“Just because I was around at the time doesn’t mean I met him,” Darcy said, rolling her eyes. “Or modelled for him. Especially not for touch-ups on a portrait of some merchant wife of sorts, or at least that was his excuse…”

Jane snarled:

“Shakespeare… and now Da Vinci, too?”

“I never said I knew Shakespeare!”

“You knew Hamlet, you’ll have seen old Will on stage, too,” Sam shrugged.

“Just because I may have been around during Renaissance doesn’t mean I’ve met every famous person in history!” Darcy pouted. “And besides, you never ask Jay these questions.”

“Yeah, because she’d go ‘Genghis who? Oh, but there was this awesome bear I met in eighteenth century, or was that seventeenth…’ I know because I tried,” Jane said.

“She was kidding you.”

“Jay’s not capable of kidding anyone.”

“That’s how good a liar she is,” Darcy smirked.

The room had fallen eerily silent.

Darcy shrugged, “What?”

Nobody replied, for it was in this moment that the doors were pushed open to give way to a Loki so overwrought, even his ears tried to curl around themselves.

“Here you are! – stay seated,” he commanded at everyone, quickly stepping over to where Darcy lounged. It was a sentence Loki had come to use a lot of late, since only one of the Avengers had received an education preparing them for a royal palace – and this one, aka Jane’s husband, had no duties of indulging his brother in any way whatsoever. Or maybe he simply chose to ignore them.

“Yes, I’m here,” Darcy said slowly and with emphasized calmness. “In the antechamber to the throne room, with Helen, where I said I’d be.”

Their position as ladies of honour didn’t include any actual duties, but Betty liked being around the dowager queen whenever she wasn’t working on her research, while Helen had volunteered to stay with Darcy during the morning before her coronation. According to her, it had been the only way to calm down Loki a little, who had zapped around the palace arranging this and that and making everyone extra nervous.

“Are you well?” Loki asked, gently taking her hands into his. “Do you feel capable of –“

“Everything’s fine,” Darcy said in the same tone she had used before, but it sounded sincere. She bent forward to kiss Loki’s forehead. Jane saw Loki quickly shut his eyes. She averted her gaze in embarrassment.

“I see everyone is ready.” Queen Frigga’s voice sounded like a soothing balm. She and Betty stood in the doors Loki had left open, smiling at the sight of every guy in the room stumbling to their feet. “I shall see you at the ceremony. Just do as Lady Helen and Lady Betty advise. Loki?”

“Of course.”

With a last look at his wife, Loki stood up and offered his arm to his mother.

“Pst,” Nick hissed as the king passed him. Loki gave him a haughty glance. “Didn’t you forget something?” Nick bent two of his fingers into the shape of goat horns. A sudden look of shock flickered over Loki’s face as the infamous helmet appeared around his head. He frowned and gave back a disgruntled nod of thanks to Nick as he left the room, Queen Frigga once more perfectly mastering her face so as not to grin from ear to ear.

Sensing Beatrice’s question before she could pose it, Nick simply shrugged. “My son-in-law, soon,” he growled quietly. “The earlier he learns to listen to me, the less often we have to put him in a terrarium at the Christmas dinners.”

“A terrarium?” Beatrice frowned.

“Long story.”

Betty and Helen used the moment to usher everyone out of the room. The human guests were to wait with the audience, although close to the throne, and they had to take their positions there before the ceremony started. Loki and Frigga were to enter the audience hall first, taking their positions on and next to the throne. Only then would everyone of rank follow. Darcy would come last, on her own.

As if she had sensed Jane’s thoughts, which might just have been the case, Darcy took Jane’s arm and, using the general hubbub in the room as everyone tried to get sorted without getting called a “smelly old handbag” by the parrot, dragged her out into a side corridor and into a small room.

“Darcy, if you’re getting the flutters now… you know that you shouldn’t give me chocolate bars to keep for you if you really want them back, right?” Jane asked uncomfortably.

“Sure I know,” Darcy snarled. “And you were supposed to eat them, but thanks for reminding me that they don’t have any chocolate here.” She took a deep breath, then drew something out of the many folds of her dress. Another advantage of this fashion: pockets. Endless pockets. “Now shut up and sign this.”

“What is it?” Jane asked quite pointlessly as she unfolded the papers Darcy had pressed into her hands, accepting the pen Darcy added in a reflex.

“It’s a contract that makes sure my internship continues indefinitely,” Darcy said.

Jane hated not getting the point. She really, really hated it.

“Why would you want to be an intern forever?”

Darcy replied quietly: “Because one day, after some long years of being queen or maybe not so many, I might forget that I’ve been an intern once. And when that happens, I want you to remind me.”

“ _If_ that happens,” Jane said firmly, signing the line above her printed name. “Where else?”

“Here, on my copy. You keep this one.”

They both folded their papers and put them away in a synchronous move that made Jane giggle.

“Yeah, we’re totally drift compatible,” Darcy smirked.

“Now you mention it,” Jane gave back, “Laura’s parrot looks a bit like a kaiju.”

“Awesome,” Darcy chuckled, bumping her fist against Jane’s.

“Come on, buddy,” Jane said. “Everyone’s waiting for you.”

Together they walked back to the others, and the way everyone looked at them with respect, maybe mixed with a hint of fear, Jane felt definitely very cool. Best friends forever.

She put a hand on Darcy’s arm before walking into the audience hall by Thor’s side, leaving Darcy alone. The people applauded wildly, a surreal experience Jane assigned to the happy occasion and the prince’s general popularity. She was grateful for Darcy’s and Wanda’s combined work on the dresses though, which were not just comfortable, but gave her the feeling of looking the job instead of her standard awkward nerd mode.

The dress was clearly inspired by Renaissance fashions: a high waistline, long flowing skirts, and tight long sleeves with broad bordures. The fabrics were light though, easy to wear despite the long train and cloak, and dyed in the colours of Earth: ocean blues and leafy greens, accentuated by gold. For once, Jane’s long hair did not get caught in anything, so smooth was the material used for her outfit.

For the first time, she took her place next to Thor on the steps to the throne, close to Queen Frigga, who was smiling gently at her. Loki did not look at anyone. He was standing, eyes fixed on the doors at the end of the hall. Despite his perfectly calm stance, Jane could sense Loki’s nervousness like a set of cosmic waves through one of her sensors. This was the first time he conducted a ceremony so large as a Frost Giant.

Then the gates finally opened for Darcy.

If Jane had ever doubted Darcy’s ability to win the day, it wasn’t in this moment. The crowd reached a whole new level of cheering as their queen-to-be walked down the way to the throne. She looked dazzling in her dress of deep red and bright gold, her figure rather accentuated than hidden by the clever garment, only the foremost strands of her hair braided back to make the rest stay out of her face, and otherwise floating freely around her shoulders. With the help of the healers and her devoted family, Darcy had managed to recover quite well: she had gained back some weight, walked with easy strength, and her once so pale and hollow face had become full and rosy again.

Being a gorgeous young woman about to secure the line of inheritance should have been enough to make Darcy win every popularity poll, but there was more. Her radiant smile reached everyone, she looked left and right at the people and seemed to know every face, gave everyone special attention. It was perfect acting of course, for Jane doubted that even Darcy knew so many people no matter how many years she had already worked for Loki, but it was brilliant. Jane felt a surprising bout of pride for her intern.

Before Darcy could kneel down at the bottom of the stairs to the throne, Loki ordered her to come to him. This wasn’t quite out of the ordinary, for court protocol or no, the common opinion was that a pregnant woman belonged on a sofa with her feet up and everyone pampering her. At least that was what Jane had experienced, for during the last ten minutes at least five different servants had tried to make her sit down and indulge in snacks. She had dealt with a particularly stubborn group of poachers in a jungle a handful of days ago (and even quicker than she normally did), she could deal with a bit of walking and leaning against her husband.

Darcy gracefully climbed the stairs and took Loki’s outstretched hands as he guided her up to the last step. This was a little out of the ordinary, too, for usually the king would present his speech and only then allow anyone to approach him, if at all. Again, Jane ascribed it to Darcy’s condition. Finally Loki spoke:

“Darcy, my beloved wife…” He turned aside a little, so Darcy no longer had to stand with her back to the audience. Lifting her hands to his chest, Loki asked gently: “Will you accept me for your king?”

The audience gasped. Not a few jaws dropped. Queen Frigga’s face showed no sign of change whatsoever, which could mean that she was expertly hiding her surprise, had known from the start, or was peacefully pondering which type of sandwich she was going to try at the upcoming feast.

“But that’s who you have always been for me,” Darcy gave back with the sweetest, most love-filled smile imaginable.

The crowd broke into loud cheers and applause as the couple kissed and embraced, Loki’s voice magically amplified as he declared Darcy queen. Jane had to keep herself from some mad cackling as she realised that what they had just witnessed was the perfect way of using Darcy’s popularity to consolidate Loki’s position. Those two…

It was a wonderful feast. Loki and Darcy performed a dance, a novelty at court – only a small and slow piece, matching Darcy’s Renaissance look. The bystanders were enchanted, and some seemed brave enough to volunteer for dancing lessons. Sam had a hard time not starting to giggle, and so did Steve and Bucky when he whispered something that sounded quite like “boogie”.

Most importantly though, the young couple looked so perfectly in love, so beautiful and sparkling with vivacity, that nobody could possibly resist their charm. Jane hoped that Loki and Darcy could enjoy their party as much as they seemed to – they had worked so hard on this look, had been so nervous about whether it would work. From what Jane could tell, the day was a complete success for them.

She quickly made sure that everyone had a good time, which looked good: the Bartons had discovered some palace cats bigger than tigers, Natasha and Pietro were giving the first dancing lessons to some of the tipsier guests, Wanda napped peacefully leaning against Rhodey, who was talking to several blacksmiths from town (the local term for engineer), and Helen had such an audibly good time with Fandral and Hogun that Steve wouldn’t be able to not notice.

Darcy and Loki noticed very little. They were so busy nuzzling, kissing, and feeding each other little treats that they could hardly spare any attention for their surroundings.

“Newlyweds…” Jane sighed theatrically, making Sif and Gamora grin at her – they hadn’t left each other’s arms all evening – and Thor chuckle into her ear as she snuggled against his broad chest, sending a small prayer of thanks to his troll grandmother, wherever she was now.

“Were we like that, too?” she said in an affected tone, noticing too late that she was imitating Beatrice.

“I don’t quite remember,” Thor frowned, “but I am appalled by the idea of leaving this challenge unanswered.”

“Quite right,” Jane heard Sif say before she let herself be swept into a kiss that deserved all the points. When it came to her, the evening clearly had a winner.

* * *

It was cold here. Very cold. The air so thin that nothing was supposed to live so high up. Should it be possible to fly here, without any actual wind? Jay had wondered a while ago, but not anymore. She was here now.

A magnificent sun rose over the horizon, so quick, the sky was all pale grey and gold one moment, and the next a spectacle of spectral colours (Jane would say) and wispy clouds in awe of the gigantic star rising behind the distant mountains, oddly never touching them.

Jay closed her eyes as the warmth flooded her face, her hands, her wings. It was not enough to melt the ice in her plumage where she had curled up for the night, protected only by the warmly glowing Infinity Gem in her chest. But that had been enough. A lot of things had turned out to be just enough. So maybe she was, too.

She missed home – all her homes, of the three she had now where there had been none before. She had missed them all, all the time. That was good, the monk had said. It would be bad if she didn’t. But she couldn’t go back just yet. She still had so many things to think about, so many matters to ponder and discuss.

Only now there was not no place to return to, but there were three.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea where that parrot came from.


	54. Chapter 54

“Ms Potts?” the secretary asked. Pepper thought that the woman had been in the job long enough to have developed a certain relaxedness about everything that could happen in the top office of Stark Industries, but judging from Ms Strongheart’s face, there were still exceptions.

“What has Tony done this time?” Pepper sighed.

Ms Strongheart consulted her tablet computer. “Massages at three pm, he turned up thirty minutes late.”

Only half an hour? Then it couldn’t be her angel husband.

“What is it then?”

“Uhm, there… there’s a bird. Outside the window of your office.”

Pepper, on the other hand, had been with the Avengers long enough to know that when her secretary told her about a bird, it was not always a case of Ms Strongheart needing a vacation. Not necessarily.

“I’ll take care of that, Ms Strongheart,” she said, turning toward her office. “You can take the rest of the day off,” she added, remembering that Ms Strongheart had worked overtime just yesterday. The secretary nodded gratefully.

Pepper picked up her purse and went into her office. She didn’t have to look long to see who her visitor was.

“My, that’s a surprise,” Pepper said as she opened the window to let Jay in. “Hope you haven’t waited too long.”

Jay shook her head. “Had a chat. There’s some really nice crows here.”

“Oh. Did they say anything interesting?”

“That there’s a lot of nice rats in the streets, too.”

“Tell me something new…” She ushered Jay to one of the chairs around a small coffee table. “Tea?” Pepper remembered. There was always some in a thermos.

“Yes, thank you,” Jay said, taking the cup elegantly despite her long claws. She denied milk and sugar, waiting until Pepper had poured a cup for herself before taking a sip. Clearly Queen Frigga’s signature, those table manners.

“This is quite surprising,” Pepper started again.

Jay said with an apologetic smile, “Yes, I’m sorry. I was on the way, and I thought I should pay a visit when I saw the name on the building.”

That would be one explanation why Tony liked to have his name written all over his buildings: it made finding his way home so much easier.

“So you’re coming back?” Pepper asked.

“Uh-hum,” Jay nodded with a big grin. “But don’t tell the others yet. It’s a surprise.”

With an honest smile, Pepper said, “I’m glad to hear that.” She might not have much time for her friends, but that did not mean that she hadn’t missed Jay, or failed to notice that the others shared the sentiment. “Do you feel better then?”

“Yes, thank you,” Jay said again with her textbook manners. “It was good to think about things. Meditation, it’s called.”

“Oh yes, I like to meditate, too,” Pepper smiled.

“Do you?” Jay looked properly impressed.

“Well, I meditate here, in my office… I have a yoga mat and everything,” Pepper explained. “You don’t have to climb a mountain, you know.”

Jay nodded, “This floor is fairly high up, too.”

“Yeah… but this office isn’t always this quiet,” Pepper shrugged. “Some days I just want to breathe fire.”

“You can breathe fire, too?”

“No, but I used to.” Sometimes she missed that ability… a little.

“Alright,” Jay said, placing her teacup back on the saucer. “I guess I should be on my way. Thanks a lot for the tea.”

“Wait – are you going to see Sam first?”

Jay nodded, so Pepper put her hand on hers – her claw – whatever it was called. “It’s Passover, they’re all celebrating with Jane and Thor. I still had some work to do, but I was just about to leave. Why don’t you come with me?”

“Can I?” Jay asked incredulously. “Oh thank you so much… I wasn’t looking forward to asking a whale if they’d take me over the ocean again. My wings don’t make it that far.”

“Of course,” Pepper nodded. Asking whales was very good manners indeed.

* * *

The kittens were not okay.

“Good kitty, thank you!” Jane said as Comet dropped a bit of chewing gum paper into her hand. She had a small collection in her lab, all from the last twenty-four hours. Comet in particular did not do well with so many visitors in the house, and as she could relate only too well, Jane worked on that by teaching the cat some distracting fetching games. Meteor didn’t mind so much attention, and in general fared better with new situations. Still, there were times when cats shouldn’t be expected to cope with just about everything.

“Shall we find Meteor and have a little walk?”

Comet meowed loudly at the question, an expression of wanting something, not actually an agreement.

Meteor came galloping down the hallway just as Jane closed the laboratory door behind Comet, and together the three of them went into the kitchen. As everyone had decided to make use of the sunny weather to go for an ice cream, the room was quiet – but not empty.

“Darling?”

Thor looked awful. Jane quickly went over to him and, after having made sure he was okay with it, wrapped her arms around him. He didn’t move, the way he stood leaning heavily on the counter, but his breathing calmed a little. She should have known that it wasn’t just the cats. They were all feeling awful.

“I should start with lunch…” he said, his voice flat.

“How about a walk?”

He nodded quietly and, Jane’s left arm still around his middle, they managed to manoeuvre themselves out of the backdoor – not so easy an ambition, with Jane’s belly having increased in circumference considerably during the last months, and two cats underestimating their own size whilst very eager to leave the house the very moment their food providers chose to do the same thing.

The morning sun unusually warm already, they settled down on a boulder not too far away from the house, where the cats could play in the fresh, thick grass. Comet immediately managed to sniff at the flowers in full blossom in a way that caused the kitten to sneeze loudly, scaring a bunch of the tiny blue bats.

“I could do with some mindfulness,” Jane said, and Thor nodded. It was a practice he had learnt in therapy to deal with his bouts of PTSD. They didn’t come as often and as regularly as they once had, but that didn’t make them any less harsh for him. He had also become more open about showing when he was depressed or downright scared. Jane may have been over her worst times, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t feel downright terrible either, or remember her worst times. Being pregnant had heightened her sensitivity for pretty much everything. It was good to have a partner who understood, and it was good to be able to help a little.

“Five things you see,” Jane said. It was a simple little ritual that helped to focus on the things in the immediate present.

“Two kittens,” Thor grinned, “a rock, my hands, and my beloved wife.”

One was supposed to do this meditation alone, but Jane and Thor found it more relaxing together.

“Four things you hear,” Thor nudged.

Jane leant against him, her ear against his chest. “One, two, three… four heartbeats,” she smiled. “Three things you feel?”

Closing his eyes, Thor said, “You, pollen in the wind, a kitten playing with my shoelaces.” Kissing her hair, he added, “Two things you smell or taste.”

“I smell the sea, and you,” Jane replied. “Very nice.”

Together they concentrated on the last step of the meditation: all senses at once, the simple sensation of being. Deep breath in, deep breath out…

“Hello there,” Jane smiled as Thor slowly opened his eyes. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

They sat for a little while longer, enjoying the sunshine, the warm breeze from the bay, and the sight of two large, woolly kittens playing catch in the meadow. Jane wished they didn’t have to go back, not now they sat so nicely cuddled up.

“Darling?” Thor said, his gaze directed back at the house.

“Hm?”

“Have you thought of switching off the wormhole simulator?”

Jane growled. “But it’s just so nice here…”

Still, the herd of space cows on their roof would not return to their own planet on its own – they had tried, it didn’t work. Half an hour of careful coaxing and a strict word from Jane later, the six-legged animals had all returned through the portal back into their world. Grateful for the break, Jane sunk onto a chair in the kitchen, cup of tea in hand –

\- when the front door opened and the voices of three generations of Avengers filled the hallway.

“We’re ba-ack!” Maria shouted, audible on at least two planets.

Thor growled, “Yes, we were in doubt.”

Jane heaved herself onto her feet, letting her hand wander over Thor’s chest teasingly as she said: “Weren’t you looking forward to all the cooking?”

“Are you –“

“Is that a question?”

Both arms around her while he kissed her, Thor opened the refrigerator with one foot, fished out one of the wrapped-up leftover sandwiches from inside, and had the thing unwrapped and presented to Jane in one gliding move. The man was a natural.

“You cook, I do some important scientific research in my lab,” Jane said as she tried to squeeze herself past Natasha in the doorway.

“Are you two living up to traditional gender roles again?” Nat asked.

“Of course,” Thor shrugged. “Who else would give me such a beautiful blender for my birthday?”

“What can I say?” Jane replied. “That tie you got me for Christmas was one of a kind.”

Natasha sighed. “Says the guys who went as R2-D2 and C-3PO for last Halloween.”

Jane didn’t reply. She still hadn’t decided whether Natasha’s choice of being herself at Halloween had either been very deep, given how little she had used to be herself, or simply incredibly lazy.

Before she could think about finding an excuse to sneak away, Jane heard Darcy’s voice from the hallway:

“What do you mean, ‘your order of fish has arrived, but they’re asking if it’s really supposed to be put in…’ – I said _cot_ , not _cod_!”

Jane sighed. Darcy had hogged Gamora’s little communicator for the past weeks, making sure everything went okay in her outer space kingdom whenever she stayed on Earth. Sadly, she had a point in assuming that nothing really worked out without her. Jane secretly suspected Frigga to have withdrawn her influence, fully trusting her son to live up to his duties as king by now. Or at least hoping that he’d learn quickly.

“Those Frost Giants are _guests_ , I thought I had made that clear,” Darcy continued to growl.

Jane grabbed Sif’s arm as the woman tried to get out of Darcy’s range of voice. “Can’t you help her out a bit?” Jane hissed. Darcy was also able to listen to three conversations whilst ordering pizza for everyone and not forgetting a single topping.

“Must I?” Sif groaned.

Gamora put her head on her wife’s shoulder. “You do, because she is your sister, and because you can’t keep wasting your time with Honeybee.”

Honeybee was their bilgesnipe.

Sulking, Sif said, “I miss the Darkelves.”

“Why, I’m here,” Jane retorted. “Are we going back to space? I’ll just get my things.”

Gamora had taken her on several trips in her spaceship so Jane could do some more research of black holes she had only been able to guess about in the past. The mere thought made her fingertips itch, so eager was she to return to the analysis of her results. They were –

“What is going on there?” Gamora asked, looking out of the library windows.

They followed everyone outside into the small front garden, entirely overwhelmed by offering space to so many people – Thor’s freshly groomed shrubs would look poorly for the next months, Jane’s conscience yowled. Nobody paid any attention to the miserable plants, for a distinct outline had appeared in the sky: the shape of a bird. A very large bird.

“Is that…?”

“Yes.”

Tony said, “… my wife riding piggy-back?”

Jay landed elegantly on the quickly cleared pathway of the front garden, causing Steve and Bucky to jump onto the fence to make space. Pepper glided off the bird’s back, quickly adjusting her hair and casting Tony a nonchalant glance.

“What?” she said.

“You never – I’ve offered you that at least ten times!” Tony complained.

“Yes, and I said I want my own suit, remember?” Pepper said with little amusement in her voice.

Tony blinked. “I now do.”

“You better build her one,” Rhodey shrugged, “or I will.”

“Uhm – there was no taxi,” Jay said quietly.

“Jay!” Jane had no idea how she had come into the garden, and she didn’t care about it either. “You’re back!”

Jay hardly had a chance to prepare herself for Jane’s hug.

“Wow,” the half-dragon said when she had air to breathe again, “you’re far along.”

Jane was about to say something in the lines of why that was the first thing someone who had been away for a whole year would say to her – but she stopped when she saw Sam behind Jay’s shoulder. She cast Jay a meaningful glance, nodded at Sam, then took a step back.

“Oh – uhm – hi,” Jay breathed when she turned around.

“Clearly your cousin,” Darcy whispered into Jane’s ear.

“Hi,” Sam said quietly. For a moment, neither he nor Jay seemed able to move, they only stared into each other’s eyes. Just when Steve and Pepper were about to usher everyone back inside, Sam managed to combine a shrug with opening his arms, and finally they hugged each other.

They couldn’t enjoy their reunion for long, for once inside the house, absolutely everyone wanted to embrace Jay – including the cats, although that turned out to be mere pawing at Jay’s feathers. Thor both carried and hugged his cousin into the kitchen, where he made sure Jay was equipped with a comfortable place on the kitchen bench and a cup of tea before the hugging carousel could start again.

“Sounds like I got back just in time,” Jay said, making space for the others crowding around the kitchen table. Jane could hardly hear her between the five different conversations around her, the kittens meowing, the Bartons discussing the advantages of sherbet versus ice cream, Darcy calling her husband again, and Gamora and Sif once more debating Honeybee’s education.

So much for relaxation, Jane thought as she went back into the corridor. She felt an indistinct uneasiness creep up in the back of her mind. Time for some peace and quiet in her lab.

“This is my house, not a bus stop,” Jane snarled as she reached the corridor. “There’s no need to turn the hallway into one.” She took the communicator out of Darcy’s hand. “Bye, Loki. Don’t forget to turn up for dinner tonight. I can’t guarantee there’ll be leftovers.”

“Boss!” Darcy complained.

“Shut up, sit down, have a sandwich.”

Darcy had tried to argue against this sentence time and again, but when it came to keeping up her strength against the symptoms of being pregnant, Jane clearly had an advantage with her Infinity Gem. There was the Tesseract, of course, but even if Darcy had been in any shape to try carrying the stone, she had declined. The gem was needed in the observatory, and either way, Darcy did not think it wise to combine her responsibilities as queen with those of an Infinity Gem.

“Boss, I –“

“Darcy?”

Instead of walking into the kitchen, Darcy had sunk onto her knees, sitting down on the floor as slowly as possible while her face did not leave any doubt that she was in pain.

“Healers,” she managed to gasp.

Jane did not lose any time. Ignoring the others around her, she fumbled the small pocket wormhole out of the folds of her shirt and, holding Darcy’s hand, pressed the button. Several months ago, Jane had built two of these devices which would bring them directly into the healers’ tower – which was exactly what happened now.

The healers didn’t ask long as a wormhole opened in the middle of their reception hall, revealing Jane and Darcy. Immediately several of them, including three Frost Giants, helped Darcy onto a sort of chair, floating over the ground.

“Is there something we can do for you, your highness?” one of the healers asked Jane. “Something to calm the nerves?”

“Sure,” Jane said. “Give me a screwdriver and let me find out how that flying chair works.”

* * *

Not much later, Darcy was back in her bed with Jane by her side. The healers had moved in next door, and one of the Frost Giant midwives stood next to the bed, checking up on Darcy once more – probably useless, for they had done nothing else for the last thirty minutes, but in Jane’s opinion more care was always better than not enough. So long as it wasn’t about her getting unnerved, anyway.

“You will be fine, your highness,” the midwife said. Jane hadn’t caught her name, Darcy was better at such things. “So long as you rest.”

“Yes,” Darcy growled. The Frost Giant nodded in a way that looked almost friendly – another thing Jane had no idea how to deduce – and left the room unceremoniously.

Darcy had only managed to receive her Frost Giant entourage as of the day before. She had worked hard for many months to build relations with the clan who had taken over after Laufey, trying to convince them that she was very much in need of their most kind help. Jane had thought it to be a masterful example of expert diplomacy, but now she realised the practical benefits of Darcy’s achievements.

“Darcy!” Loki dashed into the room, sank onto the bed next to Darcy – it was a ridiculously wide bed, like all the furniture in the palace – and took her hand, hardly daring to so much as move her. Jane slid to the edge of the bed furthest away from the couple. She should go.

“It’s all my fault, I’m so sorry,” Darcy sobbed.

“No, no, it’s mine,” Loki said.

Maybe she shouldn’t go.

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Jane said, “but it’s neither of you. Not actually.”

Loki’s befuddled face was almost worth the fuss.

“Darcy had contractions because she’s ready, but Frost Giant pregnancies take longer. The healers could help her, but she needs to stay absolutely relaxed, no stress at all. There’s a good chance that that will work.”

Jane was the first to realise how much nonsense lay in her last sentence, even without Loki’s facial expression telling the obvious.

Looking back at Darcy, his face turned all soft again. “My poor, sweet darling.”

“Can you hug me?” Darcy said in that squeaky voice she only ever used when Loki was around, and little to nobody else. He didn’t just carefully put his arms around her, he tenderly lifted her up and sat down behind her so she could rest against him.

“I should go,” Jane said.

She was only halfway to the door when it opened and Thor came running into the room.

“Darling, do you remember the little talk we had once about knocking?” Jane smiled sweetly.

“I do –“ he said, flustered. “I’m sorry. Are you alright?”

Jane sighed. “I told you that I am perfectly fine. There is no reason to worry.” She had called him as soon as she had had a moment, when it had been clear that Darcy was okay.

“I’m fine, too,” Darcy said.

“Shut up and relax,” Jane gave back. Loki wanted to say something, but did not seem to find any suitable words. Better for him.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” Thor said. “I had to make sure –“

Leaning against her husband, Jane replied in as soothing a voice as she could muster, “It’s perfectly fine.”

Gently he pulled her into his arms, bending down to kiss the tip of her nose.

“I’m going to miss dinner though,” Jane said with a heavy heart. Passover, of all occasions… “I’ll stay with Darcy. I’m sure Pietro can do my share of the recitals.”

“That’s not necessary,” Darcy said. “I’m sure I can –“

“That is indeed unnecessary,” Thor interrupted her. Jane wanted to do the same, but a glint in his gaze held her back. Not a second too late, for it was in that moment that there was a knock at the door, and another two visitors appeared. Jane sighed. So much for Darcy’s much-needed rest.

“We bring soup,” Beatrice said, carefully holding up a plastic food container. “Wasn’t on the menu, but we thought you may want some soup.”

Clearly Nick’s idea, Jane thought but didn’t say.

“The others are outside with the rest of the food,” Nick added, “but we’ve heard that you need to rest.”

“Soup is very restful,” Darcy said with her best puppy face.

“Right,” Nick said, casting bemused glances at the setting, then shrugging and sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Beatrice resolutely took the place on the other side. “Here’s spoons and napkins, and where is that thermos… this tea will do you good.”

“Thank you,” Darcy said, suddenly sounding as if she was getting a cold.

Beatrice put an arm around Darcy’s shoulder, pulling her into a surprisingly gentle hug Jane wouldn’t have been envious for. “There, there,” she cooed while Darcy sobbed into the fabric of Beatrice’s fancy silk blouse.

“I should have known,” Loki said to Nick next to him, his hands flailing wildly. “I thought things were going well, but I should have known and it was my fault – and – and –“

Not particularly happy about the situation, Nick did his best in patting Loki’s back, only to be rewarded with the latter sniffling noisily at his shoulder, too. “Now – uh – it’s okay,” Nick said, amicably patting Loki’s back.

“And we used to bet that it’d be Rogers ending up there,” Thor whispered into Jane’s ear, making her chuckle.

Once again the door opened – Jane was considering to shove a cupboard against it – and Queen Frigga came into the room.

“I’m so sorry, I came as quickly as I could – oh.” She looked at the scene in front of her. Back through the door at the setting she had just passed, which in Jane’s imagination were the whole of the Avengers having a picnic in the salon. Back at the room. “It appears that everything has already been taken care of.”

Jane grinned. “Yup.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Nick Fury were a real person, I'd apologise to him for the Loki-tears on his coat. And ask for his favourite soup recipes.


	55. Chapter 55

“Not much to look at,” Sif said.

“What did you expect of nine-hundred year old ruins?” Sam replied.

Steve shrugged, “A bunch of archaeologists in funny hats?”

“Will a distant cousin of the archaeopteryx with a funny face do?” Jay smirked at him. She knelt down, her hand on the grassy ground. “What would you say?”

Helen shook her head. “Not here.”

The ruins lay in a remote part of some woodland, the murals so trodden down that they had melted in with the surrounding natural rocks. Hence the lack of archaeological interest, or so Jay guessed.

Some rocks in the ground, that was all that had been left of the nine sorceresses’ abode. They had come here because Helen was looking for something. She had been studying the remnants of the manuscripts saved from this place, many hundred years ago, and as things so old tended to turn out, there were questions. Questions related to the Infinity Gems, and therefore highly interesting to Sam. Steve hadn’t wanted to let Sam and Helen go on their own, and neither would Jay. Finally, Sif had offered her assistance. Nobody would have asked this of her, but she had insisted.

“Do you remember any of this?” Helen asked her.

Sif shook her head. “It was a long time ago.”

“Jane?”

Their earpieces buzzed with a little static, then Jane’s voice could be heard: “Try a little more eastward – no, the other East. West. Sorry.”

Jane was back at the palace with the maps they had drawn from the few lines written down in the ancient manuscripts. She was checking with what her magic told her about the place, her magic tied to everything that was real in this world.

“There!”

Jay would never be able to tell who shouted that word – Helen, Sif, she herself, it hardly mattered.

Sif pushed away some boulders, Steve quickly jumping to her side to clear a path into the ground. Down a dusty staircase the way led, and it ended in front of a smooth wall of metal. The cave was hardly big enough for the five of them to stand in. Worse even, the magic manifested in this place made Jay feel giddy enough to bounce through half of time and space at once.

“How long will this take?” she heard Sam ask. Of course, he wasn’t ready for the spells that soaked the soil here. She wished she could have taken his hand.

“Don’t worry,” Helen said nonchalantly, “we’ll be back for lunch.”

Jay was not quite sure if she saw Helen wink at her, but it gave her an idea. Maybe Sam would feel easier with a little distraction.

“I can’t believe you haven’t had any chicken soup for a whole year just because I was gone!” she snarled at him.

He rolled his eyes in annoyance, “Are you bringing that up again?”

“Sure. I mean, I’m flattered, but in all seriousness…”

A loud, metallic screeching made them look up. The wall seemed to have vanished into the ground.

“That was easier than I thought,” Sif shrugged.

“What did you do?”

“Look annoyed.”

“Thanks God not every wall vanishes when you do that,” Steve muttered under his breath. Sif visibly pretended not to hear.

At a gesture of hers, light of indistinct origin flooded the large cave. The room was hardly recognisable as such, with its gleaming walls and devices of peculiar shape. Jay had no better ways of describing the things she saw, except that the closest thing they resembled were some rather original decorations in the fantasy films Jane and Darcy liked.

“Perfect,” Helen said. “Just what I was looking for.”

“You know what these things do?” Steve asked.

“Sure.” She wandered down the central corridor, her hands absentmindedly caressing the machines. Jay did not need any magic to see how the mechanics whirred to life under Helen’s touch. It was a different sort of magic than Sif’s, that much was sure.

“What do you think?”

As Jay turned around to see to whom Helen had been talking, she saw Sam give a silent nod.

“Remember that Infinity Gem I told you about?” he said, looking back at her. “Sif found it.”

“And it’s yours.”

“We don’t know that yet,” Sam said, shaking his head, but Jay was quicker.

Taking his hands, she said, “But I know.”

It wasn’t an empty bubble of speech – Jay understood the concept of those, but it did not mean that she would use such a construct. As Jane would have said, a lot of unnecessary bla bla.

Sam looked down at their entwined fingers. At Steve. Back at Jay.

“I want to do it,” he said. “I want to carry the stone. I’m just… afraid of the changes.”

“The Infinity Gems don’t change who you are,” Sif said quietly. “They actually emphasise it.”

“Oh dear…” they all heard Jane mutter via earpiece.

Sam said, “Maybe that’s what I’m afraid of.”

“Don’t,” a chorus of voices replied to him.

Standing quiet as a pillar, Steve said, “As far as we know, that stone is called the Soul Gem, right? Couldn’t have been meant for anyone else.”

“Yeah, very funny,” Sam snarled at him mockingly. “This is how you thank me for introducing you to everything that mattered in postmodern music history.”

“Because of your beautiful soul, you bunny,” Steve said with a weary grin. Sam opened his arms, a small gesture only, and Steve stepped up to him, giving him a gentle hug.

Quietly, Sam asked, “What if something goes wrong?”

Steve replied in a serious tone, “Do you want me to marry you two? I got the certificate and everything.”

“What, both of us? I don’t think that’s possible,” Jay said.

“What?” Steve looked flustered. Then he understood and hastened to correct himself: “No, no, I meant – to each other! Marry you to each other!”

Jay stared at him. She was quite sure that someone was saying something – Jane’s voice wouldn’t stop, but Jay couldn’t make sense of anything she heard or heard not – and it all went over her head. She saw Sam’s face fill her field of vision, and she was sure he was not talking to her. Just looking into her eyes.

Marry Sam…? She had never… she liked him. A lot. She had often thought about that, often wondered where they stood. If he liked her as much, too. A life together though…

Oh no. No, not that. Steve couldn’t possibly think that Sam might not make it through, could he?

“Is anyone still talking to me?” Jane shouted through Jay’s earpiece. Ouch.

“We can go, too,” Sif said. “You don’t have to make any decisions yet.”

Sam shook his head. He looked back at Jay.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t think he’d spill the beans.”

“Oh for Heaven’s sake!” Steve said.

“I told you not to tell anyone!” Sam shouted back.

Helen said, “It’s not as if anyone couldn’t guess for years how much you two are in love.”

Jay looked back and forth between the others. It couldn’t be, it was – it was ridiculous.

“Marriage is sacred, you know that, right?” she asked. “We can’t do that on a whim.”

“Does that mean you’d marry me?” Sam replied hopefully. “Sorry, it’s a – I should have told you earlier. Propose properly and… everything like that.”

“As if anyone in this family ever proposed properly,” Helen said.

Sif shrugged, “Gamora did.”

“I always fall in love with the wrong guys.”

Jay took Sam’s hand, and Steve’s, while she was at it. “Promise me that you two stay together. And that we’ll talk about such things now. And then I’ll…”

Sam’s eyes widened hopefully.

“… move in with you,” Jay said.

“What?”

“I’ll marry you. I like you like – there’s nobody I like like I like you,” Jay said, feeling stupid and about to stumble over her own tongue. “But this is not how you make it work. And we’ll make it work.”

“Hear, hear,” Helen said, pointing at something that looked like a narrow bench between a lot of magical apparatuses. “I think that’s my cue.”

“You know what these things are for?” Steve asked.

“Sure.” She lightly touched a hidden panel of buttons Jay hadn’t even been able to see before. “It’s quite intuitive. We don’t actually need this stuff, but it might make things easier.”

“Ready,” Sam nodded.

Sif turned both Steve and Jay by their shoulders toward the door. “You two better wait outside. Make sure Sam gets all the time he needs to get acquainted with the Gem’s magic.”

“Wait!” Helen held up something small and metallic. “You may not get married yet,” she said, “but how about some rings, as a reminder?”

Sam took the rings she was holding up. They were of an aged brass colour, and perfectly round in circumference. “Thanks, Helen,” he said.

She gave him a little smile. “My pleasure.”

“You don’t happen to have a third –“

“If you want a third –“

Helen and Sam both chuckled at their idea. She held up a small box full of the odd rings. “I’m afraid these are just spare parts. Thanks God even aliens keep their garages messy.”

“Hey,” Jane snarled.

Sam took another ring out of the small metallic container. He turned to Jay, gently taking her hand, and at her nod, put one of the rings on her finger. Without saying any more – she knew how these things worked now – Jay placed another ring on Sam’s hand. Finally, he turned to Steve, equipping him with a third ring. For a moment they looked at each other in a way Jay could not quite read, then Steve looked up.

“Helen?” he asked. “Would you mind giving me another one of those?”

She looked perplexed, but gave him the thing for which he had asked. He turned back to Sam. Without another word, Sam embraced him – only to pull Jay into that hug, too.

Before Jay knew what had happened to her, she found herself outside the metallic doors together with Steve.

“What was that?” was all she could say.

Steve chuckled, patting her shoulder. Then his face grew sombre again. “I guess all we can do now is wait.”

Jay frowned. “Do you know what Helen is going to do?”

“No. But I’ve seen a similar machine before. It turned me into who I am.” Steve looked at his hands. “I guess even a genius of the capabilities of Doctor Erskine had to get some inspiration. It’s amazing how he managed to replace an Infinity Gem with a simple serum though.”

For a while none of them spoke. The silence from everywhere thrummed in her ears, so much that Jay wished to cover them with her hands.

“Jane? Are we getting any company yet?” she asked instead.

“No, looking good.”

Jay growled. She felt Steve’s surprised gaze and said, “I’ve been taught to accept who I am. It took me almost a whole year.” Longer than a year, but Steve got the hint – at least when a small flame appeared over Jay’s outstretched claws, changing from orange to blue as she focussed all the stress from her mind into her magic. Well, not all of it. She didn’t want to see Steve with singed eyebrows, no matter how much she wanted to breathe fire at the thought that once again he hadn’t told Helen how he felt about her.

“Steve?”

“Yes?”

“While we’re having this quiet moment together… we will now plan how you will ask Helen if she will go out with you.”

It did not require magic to hear Jane snort with laughter at the other end of the galaxy.

* * *

Time was her friend. It had always been, when she had not had any other friends to speak of. Especially when she had needed it to pass by without her noticing. Now time’s favour seemed to have deserted her.

“When you’re actually wishing for those HYDRA arseholes to show up…” Jay sighed.

“Not much of a chance, after you and Jane –“

Jay would never hear the rest of Steve’s sentence, for all of a sudden, a wave of pure, unkempt magic swept over her, throwing her off her feet.

There were clear advantages to being a half-dragon, one of them being that she could easily run on her hands and feet if she wanted, as rarely as that was the case. Jay was through the opening door before Steve had managed to jump down the staircase to the underground cave. She tried to see something in the gloom behind, but there were only shapeless shadows.

“Whoops, my bad,” Helen’s voice could be heard. “Let me just…”

The lights went on again.

“Oh my…”

Maybe Steve had said that, maybe Sif, Jay could not be sure. It didn’t matter. She only had eyes for Sam.

He had always been tall and broad-shouldered, but now he could easily rival Jay’s cousins – where height and build were concerned, anyway. Jay knew nobody else who had wings.

The wings were enormous, larger than the ceiling allowed. Immaculate feathers of glossy black covered them, and they crackled with every move when Sam carefully started to stretch his wings. As he spread them fully, they filled the cave from side to side.

“Sam!”

He only seemed to see her now, but his eyes were different – no, they weren’t. They were still his beautiful, warm eyes, except with a hint of gold around the iris: the eyes of a falcon.

She ran to him, and this time she didn’t care as she threw her arms around him. As high as she could reach, anyway.

“Have you shrunk?” she heard him ask. There wasn’t much she could reply, except for some hasty sobbing. “Wait…”

Jay looked up. “Oh, sorry,” she said, quickly letting go of him. Except that his arms were around her, too. Simply holding her.

“This… this isn’t terrible,” Sam murmured, his eyes wide. “Wait – before you got your full bird shape, you hated hugs.”

“So did you.”

“And now I don’t. Or – I think I don’t. I gotta get used to this but – I think – that oversensitivity – it’s gone.”

Jay felt a huge, silly grin spread over her face. “And you thought that Gem wasn’t yours.” She took a deep breath. “It was always meant to be yours.”

Sam looked at her. “But then I’m –“

“An angel,” she nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been waiting for ages to place these scenes. It was certainly one of my favourite parts of the story to draft, and I hope you like it a little, too.


	56. Chapter 56

“Come on, come on, come on…” she murmured.

Jane stared at the little progress bar on the screen of her instruments. It had frozen at ninety-nine percent for ages. The calculations were stuck, she was sure of it. Her precious darkmatter data, the first to ever be recorded in the history of astronomy, was about to be lost.

_Beep._

“Wah!”

Her outcry made several people in the library jump.

“Sorry,” Jane murmured. Quietly, she explained in direction of her belly: “See, we have a reading. This is great! This means we can make lots and lots of new theories, and prove or discard old ones.” The twins would understand. Her excitement, anyway.

Jane was sitting in the centre of the gigantic palace library, right next to the tree sculpture with its holograms of different solar systems. A beautiful place, so full of knowledge. The twins seemed to like it, too, for they kept kicking her a lot here. Or maybe they just wanted to remind her of the next meal, Jane was never sure.

“Found the answer to the great questions of the world, the universe and everything?” someone asked. Jane turned around to Nick.

“Wasn’t it the answer that was found, and the question they were still looking for?”

“Could be,” he shrugged. “Though I thought your research would involve more books.”

Jane grinned at him. “Oh, but this is even better.” She pointed at the sculpture behind her. “See those holograms? They’re a model of the galaxy as far as it’s known. Except they’re not actual models, but miniature depictions of existing solar systems, the way they are in this very moment. I don’t need a spacecraft or anything –”

“Sounds like you’re in for another Nobel Prize,” Nick grinned.

“- and my theory has just been proven wrong, which is _awesome_!” Jane said, trying not to squeak.

Nick shook his head, chuckling. “Sorry for interrupting that.” Looking at Jane’s middle, he added, “And hello you two. Say hi to your gramps.”

“Not yet,” Jane smirked. “Though I can hardly wait to call you Lord Fury. Do you and Beatrice – Mom – have a day for the wedding yet?”

“Yes. When the bridesmaid doesn’t topple over anymore.” Ignoring Jane’s sour face, Nick continued, “… but I’m here to remind you of lunch.”

“Is it that late already?” She frowned. “And are the others too scared, so they sent you?”

He was excellent at hiding his smile, Jane had to admit, but it gave her the answer to her question either way. She began to pack up her instruments a little too harshly.

“Would you give me that?” Nick asked a nobleman who had been holding up some cables for the last half an hour. The man nodded and, with visible relief, handed back his burden before scurrying away at an impressive pace.

“Thanks, uhm, Lord… something…” Jane tried to call after him, but the man was thankfully already too far to hear her.

“He didn’t have to hold that stuff,” Nick said matter-of-factly.

“No.”

“What did he do? Be snotty to the librarians?”

“No less.”

Nick grimaced. He and Thor now went to their local library together quite often, or returned each other’s books when one was busy. If Jane remembered correctly, Nick even had a seat in some sort of board managing the institute.

She wanted to take her box of stuff, but he was quicker. June grumbled, for it was a very small box with a handle, so it could be carried in one hand. Nick pretended that he didn’t notice.

Not much later, they arrived in Jane’s notoriously untidy front garden. Thor had left it at one try of cleaning up, fortunately. Jane preferred the mess, it was such a nice little joke with all the splendour of their backyard. After the fabulous autumn weather they had just left, the summer heat made her walk into the house as quickly as she could. She almost forgot to say bye to Nick before he vanished into his cottage.

“I’m home,” she shouted, needlessly, for Thor was already entering the parlour. Smiling, he swept her into his arms – carefully – to answer her ready kiss.

“Hello darling, hello little ones,” he grinned.

She nuzzled his nose with hers. “We missed you.” They had only been separated for some hours since this morning, but even after years of being in a relationship, some hours of knowing that her husband wasn’t close enough to shout back the rugby results when she was asking for them left Jane with a feeling of uneasiness. Rugby results were essential, too, as Mrs Gupta sometimes liked to come over and chat about them.

“Ugh, I noticed,” Thor said, leaning back a little. Jane giggled. The twins had a habit of kicking whoever hugged her, something she left uncommented. Come to think of it, they had quite a number of kicking habits. At least the future of their football team looked good.

“Hello kittens,” Jane cooed as Comet and Meteor rubbed their sides against her knees. Crouching down to scratch them behind their ears was becoming increasingly difficult (every pun intended), so Jane tossed them some treats instead, which the cats caught mid-air. They did not know yet that they were to move to the palace as of this afternoon, where Jane and Thor intended to live for the next years. It was easier for everyone that way, except for the poor kittens. Jane hoped that the many cats they were about to meet would make up for the unexpected change of places, not to mention the upcoming cat pancake day. She was much more worried about Thor. He would not have much to do until the twins arrived. Being in the palace would remind him of many things for which he had needed a lot of counselling.

She had quite often thought about what life would have been like if Thor had not refused the throne, but as she saw him walk down the sunlit corridor now, Comet and Meteor on either side, a new thought occurred to her: that he was king here. This was his kingdom, this house, these lands. And this was how he handled his position: with dignity, and humbleness. And one half-hearted try of cleaning up their awful front garden.

As he turned to her, raising a questioning eyebrow, Jane shrugged. “Nothing,” she said, noticing that she had stared at him with a faint smile on her face. “Hope you have prepared enough topics of research for all that time.”

“Have you?” Thor asked back.

“Library holidays!” they grinned simultaneously.

Shaking his head, he said, “If Father could see this… he would indeed think Loki and I had swapped souls.”

“Finding out that a field of study you once detested is actually really interesting isn’t as unusual as people believe,” Jane shrugged. “I always thought literature analysis was rubbish. Then I read that essay about ‘Bridget Jones’, and… wow.”

Thor chuckled, so Jane nudged his arm. “Hey! Don’t mock me!” Instead of a reply, he gently pulled her close to his side and kissed her temple while they walked.

It had been too good a moment, as Jane realised when the kitchen door opened to reveal the noisy party going on inside.

Natasha, Wanda and Pietro had come to visit, mostly because they were moving houses and needed a break from living out of cardboard boxes. Jay had come along with them, for the last time before she moved in with the bird band. Everything was changing. Jane didn’t feel alright at all.

“Look who’s here!” Nat grinned as she regarded Jane. “Feeling good?”

“Reading my mind now?” Jane said with a half-hearted smile. Wordlessly Natasha handed her a cup of herbal tea. The woman’s pragmatism was unparalleled.

Pietro grinned, “Hey little twin niece and nephew.”

Turning down the radio to a manageable level of noise, Natasha said, “Jay is upstairs, packing her things. No idea what takes her so long… with that hermit lifestyle of hers, she’s practically possessionless.”

Jane took a step back to the door. “I’ll just go say hi to her.”

“Wait!” Wanda said, taking Jane’s teacup. “You’re coming to temple with us this week, right?”

Jane nodded eagerly. “Sure, yeah.” It was still new to her, going to the temple, but she was glad she had finally come to fulfil that life-long wish of hers. Her father had never gone, had never replied when she had asked why, and going on her own hadn’t been an option her autism provided. It was mostly thanks to Wanda and Pietro, who had promised that they’d go together so long as Jane needed help adjusting to new habits in her daily life. Therapy and living a generally happy life couldn’t always erase the hurdles Aspergers syndrome put into her path, but knowing that her friends supported her, and that she could finally go to the temple, made it all so much easier.

“Cool,” Wanda grinned. “Oh by the way, when will you come see our new house?”

Pietro said, “Not this week, we have the new collection and there’s gonna be a lot of PR work.”

“He’s a pro photographer now, too,” Natasha smirked.

Thor refilled the water kettle, handing Pietro a plate of biscuits and gesturing at him to sit down at the table so the tea was in safe hands once more. “How many professions do you still want to learn?” he asked Pietro.

Wanda was quicker with her reply: “We gotta find new things to do, now the Gem’s magic is wearing off. He’s still able to run to the pizza place and back before the tea’s steeped, but he’s out of breath every time.”

“Thanks God,” Pietro snarled. “And why not? I learnt how to build houses and I built our house, and my sister is a fashion designer, so –“

“And if you’re hungry, you’ll learn how to be a cook?” Jane smirked.

Pietro shrugged, “Natasha cooks really well.”

“You eat that?”

“Of course they do,” Natasha said sharply. “There’s no cook who knows better what they do than I.”

That was probably right.

Jane used the moment to sneak out of the kitchen. She went up the stairs, more than ever noticing that she’d start waddling soon. Jane was still not quite sure if she found this inconvenient or rather interesting. Well, she’d make up her mind, eventually.

After having knocked and heard Jay’s voice from inside, Jane entered the sunny suite at the south-western end of the house. Or maybe it was the south-eastern corner, Jane could never tell. It was always bright in here.

“I’m gonna miss you,” she said without introduction.

Jay was sitting on her futon, looking over to the big windows and the terrace beyond. Thor had tried putting up some potted plants there. As expected, they had quickly grown all over the edges of the terrace and the windows below. Just as naturally, there was no room of the house with overgrown windows to be found. It meant that hopefully, the game of finding out how much their house changed without their doing would stay an entertainment for some years to come.

“I’m not going forever,” Jay smiled. “We’ll stay here as often as always. Hello little cousins.”

“But it’s not gonna be the same,” Jane insisted. Sure, all of the Avengers were around a lot. To be precise, they couldn’t be around much more without living in the house permanently.

“Actually, I’m gonna stay more now, with how often Sam and Steve are here,” Jay winked.

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

The bird patted the futon beside her, indicating for Jane to sit down, which the latter did, thanking God for not being quite that round already.

“So, you and Sam then, huh?” Jane asked sheepishly. As if it hadn’t been obvious from the start how much they liked each other.

Jay smiled. “Sam and I, yes.”

“You got any time together?” With everything that had happened of late, specifically with Darcy, Jane had hardly had any chance to check for her other friends. Soon that would be even less time, too.

“We’ve been talking a lot, obviously,” Jay chuckled. “Sam’s gotten used to his wings really quickly, but he’s still a bit uneasy about his gem. Though it helped when he found out that he can now set playlists telepathically. But there’s lots to catch up on anyway. There’s sparrows nesting in the tree in front of the old dining room now, imagine that!”

“Oh right! You redecorated!”

“Move in with a gay couple, guess what happens,” Jay smirked. “Although putting a hole into the ceiling to make a staircase up to the roof is a bit more than redecorating, don’t you think?”

One year of training with monks and nuns had propelled Jay’s level of snark to new heights, Jane thought with a grin. “I wanna see!”

Jay pulled out her phone and showed Jane the pictures of their renovated flat. Apparently they had turned the extra rooms on the roof into one big extra room dividable by folding walls. “That’s where we sleep. See all those futons? Never slept that well! You gotta visit!” Jay beamed.

“Sounds lovely! And you have a lot of extra space downstairs, too.”

“Yeah, the living room is much bigger now, and because it’s at the back of the building where the stairs are, we can dance there. But there’s a study now, and a meditation room – ignore the punching bag – and Steve has an atelier for his art, too. He’s painted all the pictures at our walls, see?”

“Wow,” Jane brought out. She had only heard of Steve’s talent from Helen so far, but she hadn’t mentioned how versatile that man’s hand was. He had painted a kitchen still life so realistic the vegetables seemed cool to touch, a landscape Jane had mistaken for a window at first, and –

“What’s _that_?” she laughed. There was a perfect copy of the Mona Lisa in the study, except that the woman in the painting looked a lot like Darcy, even to someone as oblivious to faces as Jane was.

“Oh, that,” Jay grinned. “He said that he can’t stop looking for her in old paintings. He’s found her in at least two Renaissance paintings, and she must have had a longer stay with the Cranachs.”

“I’m _so_ gonna annoy her with that.”

Jane admired the rest of the study, a large room separated into small nooks with desks and comfortable armchairs. Jay had her own corner there, sporting a slim collection of books about traveling, the many cultures of Earth, music theory, and dancing. The picture showed her in a gigantic chair covered in blue-and-gold striped fabrics, with an equally gigantic book about fashion history on her knees.

“Have you read ‘Alice in Wonderland’ before that? ‘Cause it looks like you’ve shrunk!” Jane giggled.

Jay replied, “I borrowed that one from Wanda. See the corner over there? We’ve kept that free for now.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“You mean, if Helen wants a quiet place for some reading…?” Jane asked cautiously. She could understand most of her friends’ suggestions now, but it was better to ask anyway.

“Exactly.”

Jane sighed. “I don’t get it. Maybe Helen should just whack her handbag over Steve’s head and drag him out on a date herself. Just because they’re both practically immortal doesn’t mean it should take him centuries just to tell her that he’s in love with her!”

“He’s not ready, somehow,” Jay shrugged. “But I haven’t talked to him about it for a long time. Well. About a year’s time. He very much agreed to leaving that corner for Helen.”

That had to count for something, Jane thought, leaning back. Her gaze travelled to the ceiling painting of the sky Thor had done here. It still astonished her how skilful he could be.

“Have you decided about the names yet?” Jay asked out of the blue.

Jane nodded with a smile. “Yes, but I’m not telling.”

It was one of the most popular questions Jane was asked these days, from her friends as well as the journalists as well as everyone and their third poodle. She would have liked to place a bet on the sure fact that Maria and Natasha were accepting bets.

“And the nursery?” Jay asked. “Have you chosen a room?”

“Thor said that wouldn’t be necessary until the twins are a bit older, and it makes sense if you don’t want to hike through half the house every two or three hours,” Jane shrugged, “but we’re going to live at the palace for a while, anyway.”

Once more, Jane told herself that it was the best for everyone: they could stay with Darcy and Loki, the healers were close, and the presence of dozens of skilled, experienced midwives and nannies was good news for getting some sleep at night, too. Most importantly though, it was the best for the twins, and no matter how sad it made Jane that they wouldn’t spend much time in their home on Earth at first, that was hardly a reason to stay. Nor was her beginning homesickness.

“Why not this room?” Jay said.

Jane gawked at her. “What?”

“It’s by far the most beautiful room in the house, it’s big and airy, bright, cheerful, there’s a terrace…” Jay shrugged. “It’s quiet enough and close to your room, and you’ve really outdone yourselves with all those paintings.”

“But –“ Jane stuttered. They had chosen this room for Jay for precisely these reasons.

“I’m moving out,” Jay shrugged. “And with these wings I’d much prefer staying in that turret up there, thank you very much. Doors – not so much my thing anymore. Or Sam’s,” she added with a grin. “There aren’t any in our apartment.”

“What turret?”

Jay gave off a theatrical sigh, pointing at a skylight Jane had never noticed before either. There was indeed a small tower to be seen, right above the roof. A bit lopsided, and apparently growing in lazy spirals.

“This house…” Jane sighed.

“Anyway, that’s where I’m gonna stay,” Jay shrugged. “And you redecorate this room to be a proper nursery.”

Jane needed a moment before she could bring herself to ask: “And that’s what you want?”

“Of course I do! I wouldn’t have said so if I didn’t, would I?”

“Probably not.” Not where Jay was concerned, anyway.

“Anyway, it’d give your nervy husband something to do for a while, too,” Jay winked.

Jane had to admit to herself that she had a point there. “I’m not quite sure if he should get into carpentry though,” she said with a sceptical face. “Being the archetype of not using tools for their originally intended purpose and all.”

This made Jay laugh. “Yeah, we can’t all be birds. Anyway,” she grabbed a small bag into which she had stuffed her few belongings, “gotta be off. I have this rehearsal in the afternoon, and there’s gonna be an interview before that and… Helen wants to take Sam and Steve shirt-shopping. I can’t miss that,” she grinned.

Jane nodded. Four Avengers out shopping, two of them birds – the world wouldn’t want to miss that. Tomorrow’s headlines were safe.

* * *

Downstairs in the kitchen, Natasha listened to Jane’s footsteps as she went down the corridor towards the big bathroom. Wanda had suggested that Thor met his wife upstairs for a long, relaxing bath, which the latter had agreed would do Jane a lot of good. He was so gullible. A moment later, a very large bird landed on the meadow outside. Pietro wordlessly opened the door for her.

“So, do we have everything?” Jay asked, shaking several tomato leaves out of her plumage. It made Natasha wonder if Jay’s magical feathers were also resistant to tomato leaf juice. The stuff stuck to everything, and it smelled.

“Wanda?” Nat asked.

The list had been Clint’s idea, right after they had found out that Jane and Thor hadn’t prepared anything for moving their family into their house at all. Right now they might think that it was a good idea, scared as they were, but as Laura had put it, they’d get sick and tired of it pretty soon. Besides, the Avengers needed their favourite baking and cooking duo around. As Jane hadn’t needed to mention what she thought of parties of any kind, they hadn’t organised a shower for her either, and instead…

“Positive,” Wanda nodded. She held up her phone screen. “Everything’s green on the list. Except for…”

“You can tick that point, too,” Jay grinned. “I’ve just told Jane.”

“Perfect.” Wanda’s short, sturdy fingernails clicked on her phone until a beeping noise made the whole display lighten up in green.

Clint and his photographic memory had put up a list of everything the young family would need, and it hadn’t been difficult to round up enough friends to find all the items on the list – although they had had to keep Tony from buying mini t-shirts from every metal band he was a fan of. It had been much more tricky to find presents for Darcy’s shower, but in situations like this, Nick was the helpful angel. He had pointed out that what Darcy would like best were all the things from Earth she would and was already missing. Very simple.

“Gamora, Sif and Nick will come next week to put up the furniture,” Pietro said, checking his own phone.

“Excellent, excellent,” Natasha said, tapping her fingers against each other.

Pietro sighed. “You know, it is scary when you do that.”

“And that it doesn’t work on anyone here,” Wanda added.

Wordlessly Natasha helped herself to one of the last cupcakes in the refrigerator. The things she did for baked goods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only three more chapters to go.


	57. Chapter 57

Ashes, a desert of ashes. Rocks covered in ashes, a ground of ashes and more ashes on top. No wind to blow anything away. A world of dragons.

“How did they fly here?” Sam asked. It was the only thing he could think of that hopefully wouldn’t upset Jay too much. Coming here had been a difficult decision for her.

“Not at all,” she said through gritted teeth. “That was why they wanted to get out. Except after some tens of thousands of years, they didn’t even want that anymore.”

Sam was not sure if there was a sky above them, or if they were standing in a gigantic cave dimly lit by who-knew-what. There were some holes in the endless walls of stones behind them, but Jay had advised against going into those. Sam knew better than to ask why.

He walked over to one of the gigantic lizard skeletons – he had counted six. The six last dragons, and this was all that was left of them. Fortunately, he added to himself. He wondered which one of the beasts had been Jay’s father.

“Did… did it always look like this?” he asked carefully.

Jay shook her head, shivering, her arms cramped around her middle as if she needed to hold on to herself. “Not quite. Not before… my Gem… I… the fire…”

“It’s okay,” he said, closing his wings around her. They had discovered that they both found the gesture very calming. It seemed to help, a little at least.

“We can go if you want.”

“We should.” She straightened up. “But I wanted you to see this world. If we marry… if we should… you’d be king of this. Because this is part of me, and I can’t leave it behind. I can’t leave behind that I’m a dragon.”

“Not the only one anymore.”

“But one of the two last ones.”

He drew her into a proper hug.

“But I thought,” she said quietly, “I thought that – if we get married – we should – if they’re okay with it – we should get married on Ria.”

“Uh – okay, yeah. Nice idea.” He had never been to Ria so far, but from what he had heard, it was an idyllic planet. Full of water and beautiful winds to fly in.

“Because if you’re the last king of the dragons,” Jay said, “you have every right to be the last king of Ria, too.”

* * *

“And that, ladies,” Darcy said, presenting her cards, “is called a Royal Flash and I win.”

The assembled players – two Frost Giant midwives, one of the healers, her chamber maid, and Sif – growled in disappointment.

“It’s called a Royal _Flush_ ,” Jane’s voice said from behind, “and that’s not how you play poker.”

“Jane!”

As they hugged, Darcy mumbled, “You always play with your own rules.”

“And what you have there is a Full House.”

“What _you_ have all the time is a full house,” Darcy grinned. Jane heaved herself up again, waving hello to the others, indicating they could all sit down. She had her troubles wrapping her mind around the idea of being a princess now.

“I got something for you,” Jane grinned.

“Really? What is it?”

“Not before your party!”

“Mean!”

Jane was positively cackling at Darcy’s remark. Only then she went over to the door, to return with a big cardboard box.

“But here’s the last batch of cupcakes from my kitchen for quite a while, so make sure to make them last for a while.”

That called for a definite end of the cards table.

A little while later, or to be precise, exactly the time it took to empty a big box full of homemade cupcakes, Darcy and Jane found themselves on their own.

“That’s that then,” Darcy said quietly. “You’re gonna stay.”

“Yeah,” Jane shrugged. She looked heartbroken enough to make Darcy consider telling her about the surprise they had planned… before her common sense kicked in. If Jane came to the conclusion that she didn’t have to be afraid of anything, least of all the future, on her own, that would be even better. And the only person able to persuade Thor that they could just as well move back into their own house would be Jane.

“Come on, it’s gonna be fun,” Darcy nudged Jane. “Just the two of us, just like in the old days. Well. Except for your gorgeous bored husband, and my nervy overworked husband, and a big palace full of people spoiling us…”

“Aren’t you bored?”

“Shush! That’s what I try to make everyone think,” Darcy winked. “But honestly? It’s fantastic!”

Under Jane’s surprised glance, Darcy let herself fall back into the veritable throne of cushions carefully built for her so as to make her comfortable in every way. “It’s like a really long holiday,” she sighed happily.

“Have you ever been on a holiday?” Jane asked.

“No. Have you?”

Jane shook her head. “To be honest, the whole last five years have felt like a holiday to me.”

“Nah. You’ve been working the whole time.”

“You’re still working now, too!”

“Just keeping up with court business,” Darcy shrugged. “That they only get their part of an hour per day of an audience makes all those courtiers keep their babbling fantastically short. I think I’m gonna make it a habit.”

She had already made other things a habit, such as offering her time and attention to whoever had some urgent business, no matter if they were guild representatives or scullery maids. Funny enough, only about a handful of ordinary people had come to see her so far – Darcy making sure with the help of her most trusted maids that every supplicant would be let through to her – and had apologised over and over for bothering her. Darcy hardly understood that idea: she was doing her job. It wasn’t her fault if nobody else had ever thought about their duties the way she did.

Jane yawning brought Darcy back to the present. She patted the cushions next to her, and Jane happily snuggled up.

“Ouch,” Darcy said as she felt a kick in her midst. “You’re not supposed to play soccer with your cousins just yet.”

Her little princess seemed to have understood for once, as the kicking ceased. Darcy looked at Jane, who had already dozed off. It made her smile, thinking of what Jane would say when she found out that there would be a Jane Foster on the throne one day.

“Sleep well, both Janes,” Darcy whispered with a smile.

* * *

Jane could not remember to ever have seen Darcy happier than when she was given a year’s worth of her favourite chocolates. Well, Jane didn’t have a good memory, but she was sure that Darcy was very, very delighted, the way she sat hugging one of the boxes full of little chocolate artworks all evening (unless she was nicking a piece now and then).

The party was a great success. They didn’t play any silly games, except for the one where everyone had to read a passage from the many books Darcy had been given, by singing the words in the melody of a song the other guests chose. Maria’s rendition of a paragraph from “Jane Eyre” to the tunes of “We Will Rock You” would make it into history books.

“What’s the time?” Wanda asked unnecessarily, for Betty had already switched on the large TV screen in front of them. A moment later, the logo of a well-known talk show appeared.

Jane had asked the channel that broadcasted the show if their little screening in space was okay, and of course they had agreed, no doubt because the fact that the queen of space was in the audience made perfect PR. How perfect, that stayed questionable given the mischievous glittering in Darcy’s eyes as the show’s host started his introduction.

The programme was directed at a male audience, preferably one in need of constant reassurance of their masculinity, with additional reports about sleek new sports cars and a lot of ad breaks about beer. They had tried to get an interview with the Avengers for a long time – the men, anyway. They had long thought about what to reply, until Darcy had suggested something with which everyone had immediately agreed.

After a short introduction by the show’s host, the guests arrived on stage. They looked awesome, in the party guests’ general opinion. Tony always insisted on wearing his own outfits when on screen, and the others had gone along with this habit. Nobody except Darcy understood how Wanda had managed to design a suit for Sam, whose wings stood proudly at his back without causing a single crease in his jacket.

“Has anyone here read ‘Good Omens’?” Darcy asked. “Petition to change Sam’s nickname into ‘Aziraphale.’”

“Only if you think that Aziraphale looks better than Crowley,” Betty said absentmindedly.

“Shush!”

The host had turned to Tony.

“Mr Stark – Tony. Can I call you Tony? Great,” the man said without waiting for a reply. “I guess I can easily say that you embody the dream of most men out there: you’re a billionaire with a huge international company of your own, you’re successful with the ladies, and your collection of sports cars is rumoured to be unrivalled. Any advice for our viewers how they can be like you?”

“Give your company to a woman who turns out an economic genius,” Tony smiled. “Ms Potts has a degree in art history, but the first day she took over as CEO of Stark Industries, it looked as if she’d never done anything else. I’m lucky enough that she married me, being a retired man who hardly does anything but muck around with a screwdriver once in a while,” he grinned.

“Uh… right,” the host said, “that’s, uh, that’s interesting. Speaking of successful, Thor –“

“Mr Foster,” Thor interrupted him. His smile looked perfectly friendly and could have made a block of solid steel feel nervous.

“Right, of course.” The man was starting to sweat. There were some giggles from Pepper’s end of the sofa, and when Jane looked at Darcy’s face, she saw a proud grin spreading there. Darcy had rehearsed with the guys for the past two weeks.

The host continued, “So, Mr Foster, how is life on Earth for you?”

“Ouch!” Wanda laughed. “He’s making this too easy.”

“Fantastic,” Thor replied. “If it weren’t for my wife, I don’t know what I’d have done. Being a husband, and soon a father, too, is everything I could ever have wished for.”

“That’s your Dad,” Jane whispered proudly, absentmindedly stroking her belly.

“I didn’t write that line,” Darcy winked at her.

“Uh, sure,” the host smiled. “Though we all know you much better for your skills with the hammer, of course…”

Thor grinned readily, “Oh, that. These days I simply mention that my wife might drop in, and everyone suddenly cooperates very nicely. It saves us a lot of time.”

Darcy took Jane’s hand. “That’s a compliment, just so you know.”

Jane scoffed.

The host was sweating strongly now. “Mr Maximoff, you’ve made a dash of a career,” he tried to grin.

Darcy turned to Wanda. “Are you doing this? He’s practically feeding them their lines now.”

“Honestly,” Wanda said between bouts of laughter, “I’m not doing anything!”

Pietro said, “Sure. Gotta get the new collection going, all silks and chiffons, no use using wind machines or the seams will be all over the place. Monochrome crewel embroidery, nightmare to keep that from crinkling or shining too much, but then you hardly have flat stitching these days in fashion. It’s all repeating patterns and filigree, anyone could present that! Feminine, sure, but hardly daring. Fashion these days –“

“- is in skilled and very professional hands,” Rhodey concluded.

“Colonel Rhodes!” the host sighed in relief. “I understand that you and Dr Banner here are roommates now. Two bachelors of your format, in your best years? Must be one hell of a party!”

“Mostly we cry at each other’s shoulder,” Banner said calmly. “Over ex-girlfriends.”

“Tony,” Rhodey added.

“What can I say?” Tony shrugged. “I used to have a high fluctuation rate. So much less of a fuss, now the wife is around.”

Pepper said, “Bruce seems relaxed.”

“He had a bit of counselling with Jay,” Betty replied.

The bird said, “I didn’t do anything.”

“You called him an asshole and a coward who doesn’t want to admit to himself that he’s an asshole,” Betty grinned. “Funny that I never thought of that.”

“Sure,” Maria shrugged, “but would you have said it, too?”

The host laughed nervously, somehow getting the joke. He turned to Clint. “You live more of a traditional life. Head of a farm, living the old settlers’ life…”

“Taking care of the household,” Clint replied. “Laura’s the one with two degrees in agriculture and a certificate in car mechanics, I just make sure everything at home is alright, that our oldest does her homework, and my wife finds a good decent meal waiting when she comes home.”

“If you’re looking for a room sharing arrangement, that’ll be us,” Sam grinned. The show host visibly grasped for words, but couldn’t find any.

Bucky said, “Sam’s girlfriend has moved in, but we’ve made a lot of extra space by turning the apartment into a penthouse. If you don’t mind those two flirting all the time.” He pointed at Sam and Steve, who sat with their arms casually slung around each other’s hips.

“Love on first sight, can’t help it,” Sam grinned.

“As if that was difficult,” Steve grinned back at him.

Darcy smirked, “I told them to improvise. Wasn’t hard for them.”

“Mr Fury,” the host said, his eyes showing an alarming amount of white, “I’m sure you’re the man who can answer the question our audience has been waiting for –“

“It’s my fiancée’s sixtieth birthday coming up,” Nick said, “and the only question there is, really, is this: lemon or cherry flavour?”

This made the host’s jaw drop. He stuttered, tried to sleek his hair back – only messing up the products in it – and sank back into his chair. “Flavour?” he asked weakly, clearly not wanting to hear the answer.

Nick said, “For the birthday cake! Why, what did you think?”

The show ended without any more depictions of the host. At least that was all Jane understood, for the noise of laughter around her made it impossible to hear anything else. She quickly exchanged a high-five with Darcy, who couldn’t have looked more pleased with herself.

“Beatrice was okay with that line?” Jane chuckled.

Darcy shrugged, “Nick was.”

As if he had listened on the other side, which wasn’t quite unlikely, the doors opened to reveal Loki.

“Has my brother sufficiently made a fool of himself?” he asked with less of a snarl than was common for him.

“It’s all for a good cause,” Jane smirked.

“Speaking of good causes…” Loki offered his arms to Darcy. “May I?”

She nodded with a smile, and he lifted her up to carry her into the dining room. There were enough technical devices around to make this action obsolete, but it had become a little ritual of theirs when they were on their own, with the family – such as now, anyway.

Just as everyone was sitting down for dinner, there was a shy knock at the door and the whole rest of the team tiptoed into the room. They grinned proudly as Darcy asked them to sit down, adding a “Good show, by the way”.

“We had prepared a performance of ‘Men in Tights’,” Steve said to Jay, “but somehow there was no time for that. They simply cut us off.”

“Rude,” Maria grinned.

Dinner was unusually quiet. Maybe everyone was too hungry, or just too happy to be together like this. Maybe there wouldn’t be many chances to sit like this in the future. Or maybe they had just realised how important it was to cling to this friendship.

As the evening grew older, they were joined by Hogun and Fandral, Volstagg and his wife, and finally Nick, Beatrice, and Queen Frigga herself. Jane soon wandered over to a large terrace where she could be on her own, still in sight of the lavish rooms, but surrounded by the balmy quietude of night. Frost lay in the air. It would be winter soon.

She wished she had taken her laptop to check on some of her readings – there was a meteor shower she didn’t want to miss – but Darcy had insisted that Jane left her work in her own quarters. Still, just looking at the stars was a reward. She had to remind herself now and then that what she saw wasn’t just astronomic data to study, but to simply lean back and enjoy the beauty of it all. It was easier here, where the thin atmosphere and lack of artificial lights revealed one cosmic spectacle of a night sky whenever one looked up. It was easier to breathe in deep, too.

“You will be cold,” a voice said. A thick, warm cloak was put around her shoulders.

“Thanks, Loki,” she said. She should thank Darcy for sending him, of course, but he was the type who appreciated the gesture. She pulled the cloak tightly around her shoulders.

“An Infinity Gem is a good way to stay warm,” she shrugged.

For a moment Loki hesitated. Then he asked: “What is it like?”

“To carry an Infinity Gem?” Jane thought for a moment. For some reason, nobody had ever asked her. Not even Thor. But if he would, what would she say? It was an odd thing to talk about, like, “and this is what my appendix does”. Odd, really.

“The Gems are semi-sentient,” she started. “It’s a little like having a software add-on. But it’s also a little like a friend. Like a pet rabbit.”

He stared at her with that blank face that was supposed to look cool and aloof, but actually meant that he didn’t have a clue and wished he could be back cuddling his queenly wife. Jane would have let him, except he had asked her and now had to deal with her reply.

“I don’t have to think much about using it anymore,” she said. “It comes quite naturally. But part of that is also the stone itself. At first I thought it was only working for its own sake, that it would turn against me when there was something threatening its position. When I got pregnant for example. But it didn’t do anything to prevent that, actually it started to… I think it’s protecting the twins. And it does things for me without me thinking that I want them. Like now, for example, it keeps me warm. I never noticed that I could be cold.”

“A pocket warmer,” Loki scoffed without much humour. “What a waste of potential.”

For a moment a vision flared up inside her mind: of the bearers of the Gems completely immersed in their powers. She saw the creature who had once been Jay, a statue of marble and gold, her eyes shining in cold blue as time itself came down on reality. She saw herself, pure darkness, dark matter to be precise, easily holding up against that laughable attempt… she saw Gamora…

Jane stopped before more visions could manifest in her mind.

“You should be glad that I never found out about the Gem’s full potential,” she said so quietly, her voice cut air itself in half. “Nor intend to do so.”

Loki glared at her, but she could smell his fear. She had spoken in his language, the stone’s power vibrating through her words. Being semi-telepathic, he should have understood her point. If not, it wasn’t Jane’s business to teach him common sense.

A commotion from inside broke the tension between them. Several servants had entered, bearing trays of drinks. Jane relaxed, but Loki held back a curtain for her – useless, as there was enough space to walk, but then, he loved his gestures.

“I don’t think you want to miss what follows,” he said with a sparkle in his gaze. Jane narrowed her eyes, scanning both Loki and their surroundings in case he had any sort of prank in mind. He seemed relaxed now, too, though.

“I don’t know about those ravens,” Darcy was just saying. “They just vanished one day. Good riddance, too, those bird droppings in the audience hall must be centuries old.”

“We got them removed last month,” Betty shrugged.

Natasha said, “That’s what you do here? Cleaning?”

“Oh no!” Helen beamed. “We invented that new detergent. _After_ work.”

“Not telling what else we invented that evening. We got a bit tipsy,” Betty giggled.

“I drink to that!” Darcy said, raising her goblet of juice. “To birds and clean floors!”

“Wait!”

Steve rose to his feet. “I bet that I can give you a better reason for a toast. Maybe a better toast, too.”

“Challenge accepted,” Darcy nodded. “There’s little I wouldn’t do for good bread.”

Steve ignored her pun and turned to the others – stopping when he looked at Helen. “Helen?” he said, holding out his hand for her. She raised a brow, took a deep breath, then rose to her feet and stepped up to him.

“Yes?” she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest, ignoring Steve’s hand.

“I wanted to ask you something,” he said, retreating into a seemingly relaxed position. “Sam and I have signed up at college again.”

“Oh my God!” Helen said, turning around to where Sam was sitting. “Congratulations! What’s your major?”

“Medical studies,” he said. “Being a paramedic and all… may as well go the whole way.”

“That’s wonderful!” Helen beamed. “You’ll intern with me, yes?”

Steve snarled, “Hey, I’m still here!”

“Right.” She turned back to Steve. “You were saying?”

The corner of his mouth twitched in a badly suppressed grin. “I’ve been accepted for a postgraduate programme in art history. I’m painting again, too, so… I wanted to ask you if you’d model for me.”

“Model?” Helen said, her eyebrows about to nudge her hairline.

“Not what you think!” Steve said at the suppressed giggling around him. “Honestly, you’re impossible.”

“I guess I could come ‘round to you after work once in a while. If you don’t mind that I wear my lab coat?” Helen said, a grin spreading over her face.

“That’d be perfect,” Steve grinned back. “Of course, I may invite you for dinner once a while. For compensation.”

“And he won’t cook!” Bucky shouted.

“Well, if that’s the case…” Helen stretched out her hand, which Steve gladly took. “I could do with dinner now and then.”

Steve held up a small piece of metal – a ring, similar to the one he, Sam and Jay wore. “I’m sorry this took so long,” he said, “but I had to get this engraved first.”

Helen took it, read the inscription and gave off a small, happy laugh.

As everyone broke into loud cheers and applause, Steve put the ring on Helen’s finger before she almost vanished in his hug. Moments later they were wrapped in two sets of wings as Sam and Jay enhanced the massive cuddling, waving for Bucky to join them.

“What’s it say?” Wanda shouted over the commotion.

Helen just so managed to free herself for a moment to reply:

“ _Helen’s forever_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two more chapters to go. I'm writing the last one at the moment, trying to bring together all the lose ends of stories here and character arcs there. Really not my favourite part of writing.


	58. Chapter 58

Darcy sighed in annoyance. “Jane, do me a favour and _sit down_.”

The winter weather meant that Jane couldn’t swim in the lake, and with her fussiness only getting worse, it was almost impossible for her to focus on her research. In consequence, she spent a lot of time pacing up and down palace corridors, followed by two confused cats. As funny as it looked, Darcy preferred the picturesque terrace view from her drawing room.

“I’m really not into knitting, sorry,” Jane snarled back.

“Really?” Darcy smirked. “After I made such a cute pouch for your hubby’s tool collection? Singular as it is.”

“ _Especially_ after that.”

Jane trotted over to where Darcy sat in her mountain of cushions and pillows, looking intently at the small blanket Darcy was embroidering with a fragile flower pattern.

“That’s so cute,” Jane said. “I don’t know how you do it. The patience, I mean.”

“I’ve been housesharing with you for years,” Darcy smirked. “And you really don’t want to get back into crafting? You have a talent for spilling glitter everywhere, how about the audience hall? There should still be tons of that stuff in your attic, too.”

Jane sighed, rolling her eyes. They had managed to reduce the mountain of crafting supplies by giving a lot of it away to the families amongst their visitors, but there was still too much left to let the cats into that particular storage room.

“Good thing I’m productive enough for three,” Darcy winked. Having little else to do, she had sewed, crocheted, knitted and embroidered so many little romper suits, tiny shoes, baby blankets and what not that there really was no lack of anything, had anyone ever feared such a thing. There was a whole planetoid nervous for the big days, not to mention all of the Avengers aka more than a dozen prospective aunts and uncles, and three giddy grandparents. And of course there was the surprise they still had for Jane and Thor…

“I’m getting the feeling that I’m the only person in half a galaxy who’s not prepared,” Jane growled.

“Don’t worry,” Darcy said calmly, “you’ll see, you’re the person doing all the work that actually matters.”

“Oh. Everything as usual then.”

Jane picked up the tablet computer she had left on one of the sideboards, much to Darcy’s chagrin, glared at it, then put the device down again.

“You’re not supposed to bring your work here,” Darcy snarled for the fifth time today.

Jane snapped, “I wasn’t doing any. That’s the problem!” She let herself fall into Darcy’s heap of cushions, piled so high that there was no impact to speak of whatsoever. “I can’t focus on my research, I can’t focus on replying to questions on the website…”

“Because you’re too nervous to focus on anything, and too nervy to talk to anyone you don’t know,” Darcy repeated in a dreary tone. This was something she had already said twice today.

“Oh, now it’s my fault?” Jane bit back.

“Relax,” Darcy said so calmly that Snowball appeared from underneath a side table where he had been napping and dashed out of the room. “You’re scared, you’re homesick, you have nothing to do, and moving out of the home you’re used to was a stupid idea if I ever saw one.”

Jane sighed. As always, it took her a while to get used to new things, including the realisation that some of her decisions were blatantly bollocks. Jane was used to staying in the palace, of course, but never for longer than a night or two. She winced at every mention of her kitchen, not to mention sleeping in her own bed, and positively shivered at the thought of what a herd of space cows might do on her roof.

“Why don’t you go back home and surprise your super hubby when he comes from work?”

Jane growled, “Don’t be silly. He’s gonna be here soon, anyway.” Thor had kept up lecturing a little longer, on the condition that he could stop at any given moment should it become necessary.

“Tell me about him,” Darcy said.

“What?”

“Or tell me about whatever calms you down. But I think your darling husband does calm you down, so tell me about him.”

Jane took a deep breath in a visible try of swallowing down all the spiky things she’d have preferred to growl at her friend. Instead she said:

“It’s his last lecture today.”

“What, isn’t there some more weeks of term?”

“Yeah, but he wants to be here full-time,” Jane shrugged sheepishly. “Uhm… he says he can’t focus on the words if he has to check his phone every two seconds in case something happens up here. I’m sure it’s a student drinking game by now.”

“You bet,” Darcy chuckled, and to her relief Jane fell in, not without a trace of pride in her face.

“And how’s things going with your most appreciated spouse?” Jane asked.

“Business as usual, why do you ask?”

“I don’t know, I thought that’s what people do.”

“Oh. Right.” Darcy thought for a moment. Eventually she said, “He’s getting more relaxed. Well, mostly. His conscience is getting really sensitive now, he asks me about every little thing if it’s okay or not.”

“His conscience didn’t get used in years,” Jane shrugged. “Takes some time to adjust again.”

That was probably correct.

Darcy reached over to a side table to pour two cups of herbal tea. Fate alone knew when she would finally be allowed to drink coffee again. “I don’t mind. He can do with a little more morals, permanently.”

“How’s his therapy going?”

Slowly, was the reply to that.

“He’s not trying to refuse to go anymore, and he’s definitely attending the sessions, so I think it’s working,” Darcy shrugged, handing Jane her cup of tea. The set of china was a belated wedding gift from Beatrice. She wasn’t very creative in these matters, but at least they didn’t have to drink their tea out of goblets or, Heaven beware, beer jugs.

“If he’s not insisting on changing doctors anymore, that sounds like a good sign to me.”

Darcy scoffed. There was no need to mention that if it hadn’t been for her very stern face at the mere addressing of the matter, Loki would never have agreed to have a human doctor counsel him.

“How’s Thor?” she asked. “Keeping up with his counselling routine, too?”

Jane had only left the palace so far for her appointments with Doctor Kapoor. They were not that numerous anymore, but she felt better having them, so they made sure she had a regular schedule.

“Yeah, definitely,” Jane said. “I mean, he’s clearly better, but he has these moments when it all comes back at once. Especially… that one moment. With the giant robot, back in Puente Antiguo.”

It was as if a tub of ice water had been emptied over Darcy’s head. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry, I mean –“

Jane frowned. “Are you trying to apologise for what Loki’s done? ‘Cause – you shouldn’t. You know that, right? Even if you hadn’t been there. Even if you’d been married back then already.”

Maybe, just once, Jane had the clearer view on matters of the mind here. “Okay,” Darcy nodded carefully.

“Hey.” Jane took her hand, surprising her for the second time within seconds. “I don’t care what your better – uh – worse half does. We’re friends. Whenever he and Thor decide to fall back into brothers mode, I don’t care either. They’re both more than a thousand years old, they should know how to behave.”

“They should.” Insight and wisdom at once. She should get Jane to the healers at once. But before that, something else was more important…

Darcy held out her hand, pinkie pointing up. “Best friends forever, no matter what they‘ve come up with this time, any time?”

Jane hooked her right pinkie into Darcy’s. “Best friends forever, and if they start throwing each other into trees again because they can’t decide who uses his library card more often.”

Darcy chuckled as Jane sipped her tea, placed the cup on a small table and leant back, eyes closing in relaxation. She snuggled a little closer to her friend, so she could put an arm around Jane.

“Is that okay?”

“Mm-hm.”

“That reminds me…”

Darcy fumbled her phone out of one of the countless pockets of her dress – lovely fashion, so practical. She could carry her phone, two or three books, a solid supply of snacks, tissues, her iPod, pens, notepads, playing cards, plasters and the occasional cat around at once, simply amazing. Loki had quickly learnt where to cuddle her when he wanted his favourite caramel bonbons.

“Look who proposed!” Darcy grinned, showing Jane a snapshot Jay had sent her.

Jane studied the picture. It showed Sam and Jay in front of a marvellous mountain sunset, or maybe it was a sunrise. In a massive hug that involved two sets of wings, they beamed into the camera in perfect happiness. The message said, “You’re invited to our wedding next year!”

“So cute,” Jane smiled, already drifting into sleep. She looked aeons different from the woman of ten minutes ago whose nervousness could have powered a desk lamp. A small one, anyway. Living in a gigantic palace full of super aliens only made Jane look more frail.

“Sleep well,” Darcy murmured, fatigue enthralling her gently. She felt her little princess comment on that with a kick, and a reply from her cousins. Jane growled something, but it didn’t stop.

“Shut up, you two,” Darcy was about to say when –

Jane bolted upright, or at least she tried.

“What?” Darcy shouted.

“Darcy?” Jane said, her eyes wide open, sweat forming on her brow. “I’m sorry but – I’d wash your cushions but – I don’t think I’m gonna have time for that the next day or two.”

“Oh my God.”

Darcy fumbled for the pocket wormhole generator between the many layers of her dress. Why was this outfit so unpractical? She found a whole pack of biscuits, half a bottle of cherry juice, Jane’s earplugs – “Where is this thing?”

“For God’s sake, Darcy!” Jane yelled. “It’s a _pocket wormhole generator_ , it’s in your _pocket_!”

“No shit, Sherlock!”

One day they would find the second device in Jane’s dress pocket.

* * *

All in all, it didn’t go too badly, Jane would think later. Of course at the time, she had a different opinion – one she didn’t hesitate to spit at whoever got on her nerves, which was everyone. Thor managed to be with her minutes after Jane and Darcy had arrived at the healers’, with a remarkably brave face. Well, after Jane had yelled at him to get himself together. She was the one doing all the work after all. He was only allowed because he brought her snacks, but if it came to the worst, even the cats could do that.

As if the place were not crowded enough, Loki arrived a short time later, bringing along Beatrice, Nick, and his mother. In this case it was just as well though, for shortly after, Darcy suddenly remarked that the floor needed scrubbing. She got the room right next to Jane’s.

Giving birth certainly had a lot in common with getting an academic degree: nobody told you in advance that you had to do all the stressful work on your own, it was disgustingly sexist, and there was no chance to read a good book in between. At least the truly stressful phase was over much more quickly though, and thoughtful as the healers were, they also supplied sofas for stressed-out fathers. Also, Jane had never had so many people supplying her with snacks and tea, holding her hands and giving her unwanted motivational comments during an exam period. There were pros and cons to everything.

Thor did quite well most of the time – until Jane happened to glance at one of the windows, behind which an angry blizzard was raging. She snarled at her husband to calm down and make sure his brother did, too. The weather cleared up almost immediately.

The healers kept asking if she wanted something against the pain, but Jane refused on principle – at first, anyway. She needed to know what was going on with her. Finally she shouted at the first golden dress she could spot to bring her one of those potions. By then, she could already hear the wailing of her daughter.

“Natalie,” she winked at Beatrice when Thor placed the little bundle in her arms – well, not quite so little, with that father. Beatrice smiled happily: it was the name of both her mother and Jane’s great-grandmother, the author of her recipe collection. Thor had said that he owed both women so much, it was only just to name his daughter after them. Their son’s name had been just as easy to find.

Only moments later, it seemed, Jane finally held little Nicholas in her other arm. She grinned as she announced his name.

It was the first and only time she ever saw Nick Fury ask for a chair.

* * *

The whole planetoid was celebrating, and would continue to do so far days – the birth of a prince and two princesses at once being a historic event – but in the airy, quiet room at the top of the palace, nothing of that hubbub could be felt.

“I think she’s tired now,” Darcy whispered, so as not to wake her little princess. She could sense Loki’s smile more than she saw it, the way he sat next to her on the edge of the large bed, both arms around his little family. He kissed Darcy’s cheek and nudged her with his nose before rising onto his feet and carefully, as if the small bundle were made of spun sugar, took his daughter into his arms.

On the other side of the bed, so large it would have filled a whole room in any human house, Thor gently placed his son in the large cot that, more than a thousand years ago, had been his and his brother’s. He stepped aside to make space for Loki and his niece. Darcy looked at Jane, propped up against some big pillows almost two arm lengths away from her. The poor woman had promptly fallen asleep after feeding her baby. Thor quickly picked up his daughter and tucked her in, too. For today, the three little cousins should not be alone.

Darcy snuggled up against her husband as he returned to hug her – carefully. She was still very sore, but had refused any potions so far. Judging from Jane’s exhausted but peaceful slumber, maybe that had been the wrong decision. She reached for the little bottle the healers had left on her bedside table.

“I’m alright,” she murmured when she saw Loki’s scared face. “I wouldn’t book any dancing classes for the next ten years, but I’m alright.”

“Ten years?” he asked, his expression not any more relaxed than before.

“What? I hate dancing classes, always have.”

He broke into a quiet chuckle, lightly placing his head on her shoulder and nudging her cheek. Only a moment later, he was asleep. Darcy sighed, about to make a snarky remark, but when she looked aside, she saw that Thor was already deep in his well-deserved slumber.

“Didn’t you say that we do all the actual work?” she heard Jane’s sleepy voice. Darcy grinned, stretching out her hand so Jane could take it.

“Naptime,” she said sternly.

For the next four hours maximum, anyway.

* * *

“That can never have been four hours,” Jane growled into Thor’s shirt as the wailing filled the vast halls of their quarters. Just when they had been slumbering so nicely…

One month had gone, and they had not had a single full night’s sleep. It wasn’t the twins’ fault. Actually, they were napping peacefully right now, the Lord be thanked. Their cousin’s noisy complaints were hardly of interest to them, which made Jane think that they had inherited her common sense, together with their father’s graciousness.

No longer able to sleep so long as the wailing continued, which wouldn’t be long – it had to be granted to Loki that he was always very quick on his feet when his little princess cried – Jane heaved herself into a sitting position to check on the twins in their cot. It caused her no pain, as the healers’ methods combined with an Infinity Gem’s magic had healed her completely within days. Even Thor had had to admit so, once she had resumed their football training as of last week. It had been the first game played in outer space, too.

“There, everything back to normal again,” she said quietly as blessed silence filled the room once more, smiling down at her little darling sunshines. While little Jane took almost entirely after Loki, the twins looked a lot like their mother: dark and petite, with tiny, triangular faces, and eyes and hair as brown as hers. Only when the sun shone on them, there was a hint of gold on them, almost like an aura. And when they smiled, which they had rarely done so far but seemed to do more easily every time, she could see their father’s smile reflected at her.

“My brother is earning the spurns of a hero doubly these days,” she heard Thor sigh before his arms wrapped around her and his chin came to rest on her shoulder. She turned her face to nudge his. It spoke for his fatigue that he leant against her with a lot of his weight, if not all. She had enough strength not to notice.

Jane replied, “I don’t know how they keep it up.”

The twins had slept through since their first night. It meant getting up early, but a solid seven or even eight hours of sleep were perfectly alright for them. As fate was a balanced thing though, their cousin was not half as quiet. She cried every three or four hours, and as Loki insisted that they could manage without the help of the many nannies just waiting to be called, the young king and queen were often seen falling asleep over their own breakfast. Jane didn’t understand why they refused help so much, until Thor had quietly explained to her that he feared Loki’s own upbringing making him be so stubborn in the matter, and Darcy’s no less: the fear that their daughter might feel abandoned if they didn’t care for her enough. Thor had promised to have a quiet word with his mother on the matter, probably the only person to talk some sense into them. Or babysit.

All of a sudden, the door opened and a Darcy as pale as a zombie lurched into their room. Passed them. Stopped. Turned.

“Why are you still here?” she snarled. “Didn’t you want to move back into your own house?”

“Darcy, you’re not supposed to switch from Ophelia to Lady Macbeth. No sleepwalking for you. There’s too many terraces,” Jane said.

“Go away, shoo!” Darcy replied. “We don’t want to see you here. You have everything you need at your own home.”

Thor bolted upright, awake as a cat hearing the can opener.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Oops.” Darcy thought for a moment, which looked like hard work, then shrugged. “Honestly, just go home. I need somewhere I can go to for a holiday.”

She hauled herself back the way she had come.

“She’s not very happy to see us,” Jane remarked. But that was probably Darcy’s way of trying to make sure at least someone in the family was getting some sleep.

“She’s not wrong though,” Thor said.

“What did she mean with us having everything?”

“I don’t know. But we could go home to find out.”

Two cat noses appeared above the back of the sofa they sat on in perfect synchrony.

Jane grinned. “Looks like that’s decided.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue next week.


	59. Epilogue

Chapter 59 - Epilogue

A clear winter day, calm and full of sunshine … but not the winter in which four Fosters had become seven. Almost fifty years had passed on Earth since that time. Five decades, and they had gone by so fast. Jane may have had doubts whether she could deal with living for several millennia, but as it turned out, having no sense for the passing of time to begin with was good for something after all.

“Mom, can we go play with the others, please?” Natalie asked.

Jane grinned. They had repeated the lesson about how to say please and thank you last month, and the twins remembered well. “Of course you can. Just don’t run too far if you don’t want to miss the wedding.” They had made that an option.

The twins nodded earnestly, then dashed off down the corridor. Halfway down the middle, they were joined by little Jane, their cousin, with an excited shriek, and together the three of them sped away to the large lower terraces, where some of the other children living in the palace were playing: the families of courtiers, the palace staff, families from other planets and many others from town. Queen Darcy was adamant that education had to happen in an interstellar context, and she made sure that her own daughter as well as her nieces and nephew were educated on many different planets, by humans just as much as Frost Giants, Light- and Darkelves, Rianese and Nixians, to name but a few. She had introduced this as a nebula-wide way of learning that was slowly but steadily becoming a standard on more and more worlds.

The young queen, with the help of her many scholarly friends and Helen in particular, had also started an interstellar academic project that allowed scientists from all known worlds to come together and learn from and with each other. Jane watched as the twins joined their best friends outside their family, Frost Giant triplets of their age who had moved into the palace with their mother Yilna, an astronomer, a short time ago. She looked forward to tea with Yilna, which was an occasion they always used to compare research notes while five eager students listened carefully.

They had grown so much, Jane’s little sunshines. Although that should not have been possible, they looked so much like each other that it was easy to mistake them for one another, made all the easier by the twins insisting on being dressed and styled exactly alike, come what may. Natalie’s hair was a little wavy, like her father’s, a fact of which she was very proud, but that was where the differences ended. It didn’t matter much because the siblings stayed inseparable and were always of a mind, anyway. It could drive people mad, although neither Jane nor Thor understood why, and therefore did not do anything about it. The four of them got along very well, a stern face being the worst that had ever happened, and those occasions Jane could count on the fingers of a single hand. It was a simple matter of making sense and explaining one’s reasons properly. Reason was everything to the twins.

Living in two worlds at once, and being at home in what could be called a third, Natalie and Nicholas already had a view on the world, the universe, and everything in it, that was broader than most people’s would stretch after a whole lifetime. But then, they were amazingly smart, Jane’s darlings. They might not speak to anyone but their family and friends, but if they chose to do so, it often happened in enthusiastic monologues of a wild mix of three or four languages at once which on a good day only Jane was able to understand. They comprehended perfectly the complicated astrophysical theories their mother explained (which, on the other hand, were not that hard to understand if explained correctly). And they could communicate with cats – no other animals, just cats – as if they could read their minds. Which they maybe could. Her amazing, quiet, energetic, witty, clever, autistic, magical little sunshines.

“As if they hadn’t seen each other just yesterday,” Darcy grinned when they had finally closed the distance between each other. Jane shrugged, grinning back. That was what friendship was like, even if she and Darcy didn’t necessarily dash through the palace corridors every time they met. Not anymore. Not if there were so many people around.

“How’s the little one?” she asked. Loki had taken over carrying his son when the princess had jumped from his arm. Little Joseph was only seven months old, in Earth time.

Darcy shrugged, “Sleeping like the angel his godfather is.” She looked fabulous in her blue-and-gold dress, hair perfectly coiffed, her figure glistening in its trademark splendour and her face relaxed and happy. Although with his gentle purple eyes, thick black-and-purple curls, and angelic little face of midnight shade, he looked a lot like his sister, Prince Joseph was a happy little fellow who couldn’t be disturbed in his after-lunch nap even by Her Majesty Future Queen Jane I of House Foster re-enacting historic battles with the palace cats. Darcy hadn’t had chance for so many naps for more than four decades.

They were one happy family, much more so than Jane would have expected fifty years ago. Loki and Darcy had had their ups and downs, for the first two decades, anyway. Then Darcy had picked up her toddler daughter and her iPod, and moved in with Jane for the weekend. It had taken Loki until Sunday evening to ask if he was allowed to apologise to her. Since then, things had been very harmonious between them, or in other words: Loki behaved. And if he did not, it didn’t take more than a sharp glance from Darcy to make sure he had a good, deep think. A very underestimated activity, thinking. In this case, at the very least, it certainly had the power to keep a love healthy and thriving.

The whooshing of a pair of gigantic wings made Jane look up. A moment later, Sam landed next to her. In his traditional Rianese outfit, which was more or less a very long kilt-like garment of heavy silken fabrics of impossibly beautiful weaving, he looked more than ever like a legend. A very nervous legend, right now.

“Is Jay here?” he asked, his gaze darting through the large hall.

“Why, is a dragon that hard to miss?” Thor said with a grin playing on his lips.

Sam ignored him. “Steve’s not here yet either, is he?”

“Neither him nor Bucky, no. He will be late.”

“I know that couples become a lot like each other over time, but did he have to pick up _that_ trait from Helen?” Sam exhaled sharply, turned around himself as if he expected Steve and Bucky to pop up on the doorstep on cue, then said: “Tell him that if he’s late again, I’ll – I’ll – I’ll paint him pink.”

“What? Again?” Darcy asked.

Thor grinned, “Relax, my friend. You flutter like a hummingbird.”

Sam’s falcon eyes narrowed. “I don’t know why, but this reminds me of how you drank a bucketful of valerian tea before your wedding, and it didn’t calm you down one bit.”

Jane grinned at her husband, enjoying his embarrassed face, but also the smile he gave her when he noticed her attention. She loved this story.

“Anyway, I’d better go,” Sam said, spreading his wings again. “It’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.”

“If it helps with the nervousness, do try to decide which address you’d prefer,” Darcy suggested. “Doctor, Professor, Prince, King – I can use all at once if you like.”

“Funny,” Sam said, taking off with an effortless leap that brought him almost up to the ceiling of the gigantic hall. Seeing him flying always made it hard to believe that there had ever been a time when Sam had not had wings.

“You’d never think it’s the third time they get married,” Gamora said incredulously. Jane quickly turned to where Gamora had approached with Sif and Natasha, their daughter. The toddler shrieked excitedly when she spotted her cousins playing catch around some potted plants and let go of Gamora’s hand to run toward them, only to stumble over her own feet halfway. However, before little Nat could start crying, Princess Jane was already there, the twins in her tow, to help Natasha up. They were only a bit older than Nat, but all three already behaved like older siblings. Especially Jane, spoilt as she might be, showed a compassion for others that was far beyond her age. A promising trait for a future queen.

“She looks so much like you,” Thor said to Natasha’s visibly proud mothers. Even Sif smiled whenever she heard these words. It had taken her and Gamora a long time to make this decision, and with the healers’ help, their wish had come true.

They had named their daughter the way almost all of Clint’s grandchildren, Pietro’s offspring, Ian’s and Estefan’s daughter, and Rhodey’s and Bruce’s Golden Retriever pup had been named Natasha. It was the Black Widow’s own fault for complaining at one unforgettable New Year’s Eve party that she should have been Nathaniel Barton’s namesake. Come to think of it, she should arrive soon, together with Wanda, Pietro, and the whole of his clan. Also, at least three dozen Bartons were expected as guests at the wedding ceremony, most of all by Frigga herself, who was godmother of most of them. The palace wasn’t closely as busy as it should be by now.

As so often, Jane felt the old sorrow rising up in her heart: the sadness about so many of their friends no longer able to attend happy occasions such as this one. Clint and Laura, although it was great to see so many of their children and grandchildren, some of them already grey-haired themselves. Rhodey and Tony. And Bruce, although in his case it had taken a remedy Betty and Helen had concocted together to make the Hulk vanish from his life. It had left Bruce a full three decades of his own.

The loss of Beatrice had been the most difficult for Jane. More than twenty years had come and gone since that early summer day, and yet the memory still made the pain of grief rise all through her body. She quickly looked back at the others.

“Did Frigga insist you wear a dress?” Jane asked Sif with a smirk. There was no way Sif could not have looked beautiful, but she usually stood by her choice of wearing mail to official occasions. It was a matter of reputation she did not handle carelessly.

“No,” Sif snarled, “the healers did.”

Gamora took her wife’s hand, smiling. “After I insisted that this time it was her turn, and that I’d gladly lend her my maternity clothes.”

“Oh my God!” Jane pulled Sif into a hug, carefully enough, but Sif seemed surprised nonetheless. “Am I the only one who didn’t know?” Jane asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Didn’t know what?” Helen’s voice asked. She had appeared out of nowhere, probably using one of the countless secret passageways of the palace, although Tony’s old theory that she had learnt to become invisible made sense, too. “Anyway, I probably don’t care. Are Steve and Bucky here yet?”

“They’re gonna be late,” Darcy said with a very calm smile. “The rush hour.”

Helen’s face made any additional comment obsolete. “Right,” she said. “I’ll be with Betty. Make sure she doesn’t mistake any of the flower arrangements for sheep again.”

Thanks to the excellent medical care provided to her, Betty had not quite felt old age as much as many of her human friends. Still, at some point quite a long time ago, she had started to be a little funny once in a while. Fortunately it wasn’t so bad that she could not look after herself anymore, but Helen and everyone else in Frigga’s vicinity still made sure to pay special attention to their friend. Betty’s inventions in terms of agriculture on very limited space, together with her warm and gentle heart, had made her a true celebrity in this world. Little wonder that she had never felt the wish to return to Earth, something to which her taste for the local food certainly added.

“Not the fountain, Natasha!” Gamora called, only to growl “Excuse me…” before she went to make sure her daughter did not pick up fishing for a hobby.

“I’ll round up the rest of them,” Sif added, following her wife. “You’re welcome.”

Just when they had all left the hall, Jay turned up. She looked dashing, every feather a rainbow blaze of dazzling light, her sky blue and silver Rianese dress a true piece of art. The people of Ria had taken very fondly to their lost-and-found young queen – or at least they had done so when she had declared her abdication, so they could keep the parliament they had established in her absence.

“I’ve been looking for Helen, have you seen her?” she asked.

“With Betty.”

“Oh, okay then, I’ve been asking for Betty. Is Steve still late?”

“Not as late as the first time he asked her out on a date, but late enough.”

Jay rolled her eyes.

Thor said, “One can only wonder how long it will take them to take the vow.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jay shrugged, “but Helen would better move in with us some time soon.”

“What –“

“Because I’m not gonna decorate two nurseries for her.”

She left that statement where it was, grinned knowingly, spread her wings and babbled “Oh wow, I’m so excited!” before she took off in the direction of the throne room.

“Honestly, those two…” Darcy shook her head.

Jane snarled, “You knew that, too, didn’t you?”

“I can see a church by daylight,” Darcy shrugged. “We’re working on some excuse to send Helen to Earth.”

“Bucky’s apple pancakes would be one,” Loki said nonchalantly.

Darcy’s elegant fingers caressed his cheek, and it was only half-mocking when she replied, “Oh, you always think of something, darling.” Gently she put her arms around her husband, resting her cheek against his upper arm so that they could both look at their son. Little Joseph chose the moment to yawn, causing his parents to smile sheepishly at each other. Loki bent down to kiss the tip of Darcy’s nose, only sweetening her smile.

It was always good to see them like this, but not a surprise. Darcy and Loki might have had a rough start in their relationship, and taken a rocky road here and there, but such was the nature of their love – and love it was, so much was obvious. It had been obvious a long time before they had thought of a sibling for their little princess.

“Why is our guest of honour not here yet?” Darcy asked, pulling herself out of her love-filled trance.

“Isn’t an old man allowed to take his time up here?” Nick’s voice resounded through the wide hall, turning heads everywhere. Pepper was by his side, and he was using a cane to support himself nowadays, but most other humans at the age of a hundred and twenty-one did not look quite as agile anymore, as Nick liked to point out. Pepper and Maria had moved in with him, shortly after they had all found themselves lonelier than they had been able to bear. Pepper herself hardly showed any signs of age at all, and although Maria now used a wheelchair, her mind was as sharp as ever. She zapped past them all with a hearty “Hi everyone! Last one inside buys the beer!”

It was indeed time to go inside, where the latecomers would find them more easily, too.

“Here, let me,” Thor offered, and Loki carefully handed him the precious bundle in which Joseph was sleeping.

“I can –“ Darcy started, but then decided to save herself the effort. Thor smiled at his nephew’s tiny hand, which could hardly close around his index finger.

“He takes after his father, but he has your face,” he said to Darcy, who smiled proudly. The crown princess was her Dad’s biggest fan, wanted to be like him in every way – something that scared Loki most, as he had once admitted to his sister-in-law. One could not begrudge Darcy for hoping her son would be a little closer to her.

“What do you think?” Thor said, waking his wife from her thoughts. “Would the twins like another sister or brother?”

Jane couldn’t help but grin back at him.

“But not right here and now!” Loki snarled as he went past them, Nick laughing as he allowed Loki to lend him his arm for support. It was a strange friendship that had formed between them. Or maybe it was simply a relationship of deep respect, marked on Loki’s side by gratefulness for Nick’s constant advice during the years (and an indefinite number of defeats in chess), and Nick acknowledging Loki’s willingness to pay him that respect.

“Natasha will be late,” he said in Darcy’s direction. Just as Frigga was particularly close to the Bartons, something that was somehow related to an incident with a parrot many years ago, Nick had taken up the position of honorary great-gramps for Natasha’s little clan. It was hardly surprising, close as he and Nat had always been. “If you ever want to see the Black Widow fail, try when she tries to assemble her brood on time.”

“No need,” Darcy replied. “We get enough of that here.”

Nick winked at her, then let Loki help him up a shallow flight of stairs.

“Alright, time to go inside, everyone,” Darcy said, shooing her guests out of the entrance hall. They joined Jay, Sam and the others in the throne room’s antechambers, by now well known to Jane. It was a little like waiting at the doctor’s, only without the magazines, and that a typical doctor’s place didn’t have Queen Frigga joining the commotion with a big smile as she did today. Frigga just loved being the grandmother of, well, everyone.

Some of Darcy’s ladies-in-waiting were around, making sure their queen was comfortable and didn’t have too much on her mind with the many princes and princesses playing hide-and-seek behind the corridor statues. Jane knew the ladies well by now, as all of them had been Darcy’s maids from the very beginning. One of them, a Rianese woman called Elvar, had taken her seat next to Jane. Darcy didn’t want her maids having to stand up all the time, no matter how many nobles in the room were on their feet, trying to climb the statue of King Whatever-His-Name-Was.

“Hi,” Jane smiled.

“Hello, your highness,” Elvar smiled back. People up here were used to her style of communication. Elvar said, “I read the first chapters of your book last night. It is truly captivating.” They didn’t even mind leaving out the smalltalk for her.

“As if darkmatter hadn’t been discovered here ages ago already,” Jane winked.

“When will the book be published on Earth?” Elvar asked.

“Next month, uhm… that should be around cat pancake day.”

Elvar laughed, “Ah, yes, cat pancake day. Her Majesty’s most popular novelty.” She glanced at Darcy.

The room had fallen eerily silent. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Jane. She could see Thor and Loki shiver, and even Frigga looked as if she were failing to remember a spell that would transport her to the other end of the universe very quickly. Darcy sat rigid as a statue.

Jane’s voice was deep as a canyon when she spoke:

“That. Was. A. _Prank_?”

_\- fin -_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it then.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading, especially to the ever-reliable Shadows_of_Shemai who for the most time - including these past months - was the only one leaving comments. Without those I'd have stopped writing ages ago. I will not continue writing ff because it's too much effort for too little reward, so thanks for making at least this story happen.
> 
> Disclaimer: the Shakespeare quote should be easy to spot.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting this chapter early, and I may work it over in the time to come - although the majority of the storyline is settled and will span over quite an arc (as if I hadn't just finished a huge piece... oh well), there might be bits and pieces to change as the characters and sub-plots evolve.
> 
> Hope you liked this, I'd love to hear what you thought of it!


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